‘My soul is the captive of God, taken by Him in battle; it still remembers the war, though so far from it, with delight and alarm and wonder.’
Sri Aurobindo
Aturning point in Hindu civilisation has been reached. The choice is as clear as the indications given by the conditions surrounding this formidable moment.
In previous articles and in my books, I have discussed this question of choosing – or, as I call it, the act of choosing. It is an essential ingredient at the turning point because the mechanics of the act involve a release of energy. Indeed, the act of choosing is simply for the purpose of carrying out this release. The energy that ‘escapes’ is the new addition which alters the alchemy of forces in turbulent interaction. But in reality there is no choice as such; the entire mechanism is artificial when seen from a higher plane of perception. This becomes obvious when the ‘right’ choice is made and miraculously a shift occurs transforming the entire panorama, in some cases instantly. Yet at a lower level, or rather on the plane where the issue is being played out, the choice is not at all fictitious. Hard facts accompany our act of choosing – deaths, bloodshed, nations disintegrating amidst turmoil and confusion. These are the realities we live with today, at this momentous time of choosing. Nonetheless, they are not real issues and we are therefore permitted to call them fictitious in that the real exists only in the heart of the process. From there waves are thrown up and out which create a ‘field’, and it is in this field that most of the issues apparently of central importance can be located. Their function in the process is quite other than what is imagined and is important in its own ways which this article will attempt to clarify.
When a turning point is reached circumstances conspire to create conditions which force us into a position demanding an act of choosing; in other words, which force us to release energy. This is what is now demanded in India: an act of choosing for the purpose of releasing energy. When it is an unconscious act, it will be accompanied by destructive manifestations proportionate to the degree of unconsciousness prevailing. When awareness of the real issues is present, the process is one of dissolution and not destruction. That is, outer sheaths where the energy had become compacted into hardened masses are dissolved, dissipated. In unconsciousness entailing destruction, blows are inflicted on the sheath to force a breakthrough. This is transposed onto the human stage as acts of violence, bloodshed, death. Or else, in the economic sphere we may witness the collapse of economies, or in politics the complete collapse of systems or, in more extreme cases, revolutions with their attending turmoil, agitation and death.
India has reached such a turning point. But the sheath to be dissolved is a residue accumulated over 2500 years. Ignorance of this fact is what encourages a focus on issues which are irrelevant at worst and peripheral at best. In other words, we must view the state of a civilisation as a growth of many layers; these are indeed sheaths – but formed of TIME ENERGY. This process is the experience of individuals as well as groupings of collective consciousness – for example the Hindu civilisation. The more mature a civilisation, the easier it is to perceive the process, or the more starkly defined its turning points.
Thus we perceive a residue accumulated in the sheath surrounding the core of Hinduism. The truth-essence of that core is the Sanatan Dharma, the eternal truth or law. But being eternal does not mean fixity of form which implies fossilisation. Indeed, this lies at the heart of the issue and is the crux of the turning point. Eternal in time (and there can be no concept of eternity which does not include time) implies a ceaseless flow; that is, a truth which evolves NEW forms in a process that is entirely true to the essence. In Hinduism this is very clear, unlike what we encounter in religions. The Sanatan Dharma contains an in-built system of renewal unique on this Earth in that it forms the undisputed core of the Dharma or the backbone of the structure. This is the Line of Ten Avatars.
Hinduism’s Alliance with Time
The Line refers to an evolutionary mechanism which USES Time for the action of evolving new forms around a truth-core. The Avatar’s purpose is exclusively this: he or she takes birth under certain time conditions which allow the Avatar to evolve, by the aid of Time in the evolutionary process, these new involucrums. In the process and if there are hardened crusts of impacted residue, this Agent of Time must undo those crusts.
Two factors may complicate the matter. One is when the Avatar is not recognised and society opposes his evolutionary/revolutionary work; the other is when very special conditions prevail which result in unusually hard crusts, or extreme masses of compacted energy residue. Both these situations describe the happenings surrounding the work of the present Avatar in this 9th Manifestation.
The second of the two is worth elucidating: the Line consists of ten, it is known. But what is not known is that they are a string of births stretched over many millennia but nonetheless thoroughly linked through the substance of the missions to be accomplished. The Avatars’ work, though spread out over vast aeons, is one process with one finality: the establishment of the reign of Truth, or the Golden Age. In Hinduism it is known as the Satya Yuga.
Thus, and this is fundamental, the movement works through the Line toward a culmination. This is supremely clear if we know the heart of evolution’s purpose. We observe then how each Avatar has added a portion to the mosaic. Sri Aurobindo has carefully explained this in his writings on the Ten Avatars. However, he dwelt primarily on the specific contributions of the 7th and 8th Avatars – Sri Ram and Sri Krishna. Interestingly, he had less to say about the 9th, except to state that Kalki would come ‘to correct the error of the Buddha’. On the other hand, we have the Puranas which refer to this 9th Avatar Buddha as the ‘ruse of the Supreme’, meant to ‘mislead the asura-seekers’.
These references have been made use of to support the contention that Buddhism was a persecuted faith in India and pursued by the Brahminical caste to its final ejection from the country. It is a debate which has surfaced forcefully in this decade due to two factors: one is the Ayodhya Temple episode with the intelligentsia seeking to convince the nation, for its own designs, that the mosque occupying the site was built over the ruins of a Buddhist shrine which had been destroyed to give way to a Hindu temple; that is, that the Hindus had been the first to destroy and build; and second, the caste debate which has been brought to a tragic extreme by the policies of the former prime minister, V.P. Singh.
Regarding the first, certain points need to be clarified. It is doubtful that a Buddhist shrine occupied the site where the mosque now stands, but what might be the deeper purpose in casting this contention into the cauldron already replete with contentious forces? The purpose is to add substance to the theory of Brahminical intolerance and persecution of Buddhism out of a desire to maintain a hold over the out-caste masses as well as the lower echelons within the system. However, it has to be pointed out that if this desire of subjugation truly existed, Hinduism would not have evolved as it did over these past ten thousand years. It would have provided for itself the proper tools for suppression and dominance such as we find in religions. In Hinduism it is true that a degeneration set in, but this has little to do with Brahminical despotism as it has been elaborated by historians.
In the Dark Ages, the priests and men and women of Knowledge in Hindu civilisation knew that the Buddha was ‘the ruse of the Supreme’ and that though circumstances forced his insertion in the Line as the 9th Avatar, he was nothing of the sort. But exactly what his role might be was not understood, though it was clear that he was indeed connected to the Line in a most essential manner. Clarity could not prevail simply because this discovery involved the deepest essence of the true 9th Avatar’s mission, Sri Aurobindo, whose appearance was due many centuries into the future.
According to the cosmic harmonies, which provide the ‘credentials’ for the Line of Ten, the 9th could not have appeared at the time of the Buddha: time would not have permitted it. The Avatar appears in the portion of each Manifestation (consisting of 6480 years each) which belongs to Vishnu [see The Gnostic Circle]. Thus they are known as ‘Incarnations of Vishnu.’ This description is misleading unless one knows the fundaments of these harmonies.
Suffice to say, those persons of Knowledge who described the Buddha as the ruse of the Supreme were not far from the truth – however, it was a truth which would take over 1500 years to be clarified and proven. Those ‘Brahmins’, often a euphemism for realised souls or persons of Knowledge, were not persecutors of Buddhists; they were simply preceptors of something of the Cosmic Truth and the deeper workings of the Time-spirit. At the same time, the entry of an erroneous incarnation as the 9th created its own problems. To put it succinctly, in itself this act became the reason why the perception of the Cosmic Truth and its issuing harmonies was lost. The vision became clouded to the point where decisive links were missed, great chunks were subtracted from the greater mosaic that is Hinduism. Certain essential portions remained, indeed a CORE, but the veils began to collect around this core becoming denser as the Manifestation’s clock ticked away in its relentless and irreversible march into the Age of Vishnu, the period of culmination in this 9th Manifestation and the real time of appearance of the 9th Avatar. To be precise, Vishnu’s period in this 9th Manifestation began in 1926. His period prior to this was more than 6000 years ago. Thus, 6480 years separate the appearances of each Avatar in the Line. At about the midway point between the birth of the 8th, Sri Krishna, and the 9th, Sri Aurobindo, the ‘ruse of the Supreme’ appeared as a ‘shadow’ cast before the figure of the real 9th. This Shadow describes the residue. In that tenebrous sheath energies are accumulated which demand to be dissolved if at all the core-truth is to survive and continue propelled through the aeons by the Time-Spirit.
Questioning the Unquestionable
Yet there is far more to the matter and it will reveal just why a situation such as a ‘strategy of ruse’ arose in the course of the Line of Ten. That is, tradition does not refer to any other incarnation in this rather shocking fashion; or if it had proven necessary as a tactic, it is baffling that this should have centred on an incarnation of the spiritual status of the Buddha. This fact has left Hindu culture quite vulnerable in the face of attacks from a number of luminaries in different intellectual disciplines. There have been Asuras along the way, Rakshasas, and all sorts of embodiments of evil whom the Avatars have had to battle in the course of their missions. But there has never been a ‘ruse’ – that is, a truly SPIRITUAL figure of superior accomplishments as a false avatar yet universally accepted by Hindus themselves as one whose position as the 9th stands unquestioned. Indeed, to do so might appear as blasphemy to many, such has been the ingenuity of the ruse. But this questioning is part and parcel of the work of the true 9th. None before him, or indeed before he had victoriously accomplished his work, could hope to unravel the mystery or even realise and accept its existence.
At this stage, there is hardly a person in India who dares question this fundamental proposition: Gautam the Buddha was not the 9th Avatar and his insertion in the Line did indeed constitute a ruse, – or better said, a strategy.
The point is the Buddha was essential to the process described in the beginning of this discussion. He planted seeds in the collective consciousness of a movement which would result in the hardening of the crust, or the amassing of residue in the time-energy sheath of Hindu civilisation, destined to reach its maximum degree of density at the time of the appearance of the last Avatar in the Line.
The Satya Yuga is expressed by the 10th. Everything before that is a temporary circumstance to aid in the arrival of the Age of Truth. But let us be more specific.
Like the gestation of a cow, or a human being, 9 is the measure. Similarly, the Line of Ten follows the same measure: at the 9ththe birth occurs. This means that everything or everyone prior to this 9th was simply a ‘month’ of the gestation (or stage in the evolution of consciousness on Earth). When we reach the 7th and 8th ‘months’ (Avatars), the foetus is quite well-formed – but it is still a foetus, ergo, unborn; nonetheless, it begins to reveal a character, it is able to house a soul and to serve as a form-vehicle at the time of birth. Well-formed though it may be at the 7th and 8th stages of the gestation, it is nonetheless a foetus. Time must fulfil itself and the gestation must be completed. Nine is the measure and sacred is the cow because she parallels the process: the progressive densification of the Light (‘go’ in Sanskrit, or ray). Furthermore, nothing can truly be known of the ‘body’ or the individualised attributes of the new-born until the actual birth. The time of this birth, gestated for a period of approximately 51,840 years, was the present period of Vishnu which started in 1926.
As pre-eminent instruments of the Time-Spirit, it is only in Vishnu’s periods that the Avatars can appear, for these are the Ages of Preservation. This particular and special Manifestation – the 9th of this Manifestation, was struck in 1926. It was the year Sri Aurobindo formally initiated his work: he withdrew to his room in that year and for 24 thereafter did a yoga of supreme concentration in order to see the ‘birth’ through successfully. The period of the true 9th had dawned upon India as the new Age had dawned on the cosmic horizon. This means that what Sri Aurobindo’s coming signified was the birth of the true and only real form of Hinduism. Or else, after his coming and this successful passage, his mission would produce an India that would be able to ‘see with NEW EYES’, for that is the meaning of the Coming.
The Birth of Guha, or the New Way
As time fulfils itself the involucrum surrounding the foetus begins to exert pressure; the waters press upon the foetus from all sides, contractions begin at a predetermined time and the ‘child’ comes forth. This Child is the 10th in the Line, the male-child Kartikeya, or Kalki. He comes as the War God, or with sword in hand, because the condition of the sheath requires this extreme power. The conditions accompanying his arrival are such that the crust is hardened to its maximum point of destiny. That point is reached in the second half of this century, culminating in the last three decades of the millennium, particularly in the 1990s. Only the power of the Sword will break the sac and permit the Birth. It is a cosmic process, a cosmological phenomenon. What this means is simply that the Age of Truth, the Satya Yuga, is ushered in by the Warrior of the Sanatan Dharma.
The reasons are obvious, the circumstances surrounding the Birth explain the position well; they do not lie. But the point is that when Knowledge does not illumine the path a stillborn creature may emerge due to the intensity of the force employed, in keeping with the cosmic process. In other words, the baby may be thrown out with the bath water. This, above all else, has to be avoided, for it is another ‘tactic’ in the strategy of the agents of Darkness: if the victory cannot be theirs, success will nonetheless attend their efforts by provoking a holocaust which will reduce Hindu civilisation to a shadow of itself, if it will survive at all. This can only be averted when the true and full process is known, which in turn informs us of the identity of these forces and how they operate.
Indeed, this is the key feature of the Satya Yuga: it is no longer a reign of ignorance, falsehood and half-light. Knowledge, the supreme Gnosis prevails, triumphs, forms the basis of the new order. Thus, to pretend to be instruments for this Birth without the mind and heart illumined by this truth-seeing is to delude ourselves pathetically. Our unknowing will simply prolong the reign of Ignorance and falsehood and may even be used to hasten the final collapse.
These are the veils that are pierced by the Sword of Truth which Kalki wields. Kalki is the symbol of the victorious Birth. The ‘ruse of the Supreme’ clouded this cosmic process in veils – protecting it as a foetus is protected by the maternal sac until its moment of birth arrives. At the same time, the veils themselves are the focus of an ever-increasing residue which must now be dissolved.
But is it to be done by DISSOLUTION or DESTRUCTION? This is the only question we may legitimately ask. Because the victorious birth has already taken place. Therefore it is no longer appropriate to question if the Child will be live or stillborn because Sri Aurobindo has already successfully accomplished his mission. The only ‘unknown’ at present is what means must be employed to allow for that Child, and no other, to emerge from behind the veils which continue to cover him in his form of Guha, the Hidden One.
Darkness before the Dawn
At a certain point in the evolution of Hindu society the correct deciphering of the cosmic script was lost. The result was adoption of a system of calendrical reckoning which threw the civilisation’s time measure off substantially. Hinduism could no longer locate the periods of Vishnu and by consequence determine the exact time of the appearance of the Avatar. It is safe to assume that the adoption of this inaccurate astronomical formula occurred around 300 AD. It is also safe to assume that this adoption was accompanied by the insertion of Gautam the Buddha into the Line of Ten: ‘ruse’ and miscalculation of time go hand-in-hand.
The time residue began to accumulate from that point onward; in the West during the same period, or 396 AD to be precise, there was a symbol-reflection of this lost measure in the cessation that year of the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries in praise of the Divine Mother and her daughter, the Kore (a counterpart of the Hindu Kumari).
The adoption of this inaccurate cosmic reckoning, accompanied by the insertion of a false Avatar in the Line, had the desired effect of weakening the foundations of Hinduism. Soon after invasions began in a civilisation weakened from within; Hinduism no longer had the power to ward off these forces since its binding energy had been dissipated. India was a united civilisation in the cosmic dimension of its collective expression and experience long before it became a united nation during the British Raj. And this unity resided in Hinduism and its oneness with the Cosmic Truth. But having lost that connection, the pillars of both the civilisation and the physical nation were attacked and the momentum increases, just as the wrong measure permits a time residue to accumulate with each passing year.
Thus we note that by this wrong formula India marks its cosmic age at an interval of 1656 years behind the rest of the world. In other words, according to these calculations with respect to the true cosmic dial, India’s reckoning became frozen in the year 270 AD. The measure is a colossal 1656 years off the mark, into the past. It is during this span of more than 1500 years that the Hindu civilisation has been experiencing a slow and steady decline, with no hope of immediate reprieve since the period of Vishnu is not expected to dawn until the fourth millennium of our era!
Throughout these centuries Hinduism has not been able to express new forms of itself and make use of its in-built mechanism for change. Until, that is, the arrival of the true 9th Avatar and his mission as Mahakala began in the early part of this century. His foremost aim was to set on its way the process of ‘correcting the error’. However, correction is not simple insofar as the wrong formula affects the passage of the cosmic year as well as the Solar/Earth year. For example, this dislocation is an annual feature of Hindu celebrations, one of the main ones being the Makar Sankranti, or the Sun’s entry into India’s ruling sign, Capricorn. This is celebrated on 15 January, or 23 days late. In such an atmosphere of confusion the really inspiring fact is that Hinduism has managed to survive for as long as it has under these conditions which affect the very heart and soul of her culture – that is, the cosmic harmonies which form the indisputable basis of the civilisation.
The formula is precise: when the Shadow’s arena is the play-out destruction is the method. In terms of the cosmic process, that Shadow means the past. In view of the above discussion of the lost time-measure, it can be appreciated that at the heart of today’s struggle lies an attempt to draw the hands of the cosmic timepiece to their correct position in the Time-Spirit’s clock of the passage of the Earth’s Ages and bring about a perfect harmony of time and space, or the experience of the Satya Yuga. This can only be done through the knowledge provided by the Avataric Line.
Thus, the turning point of our times – today, not tomorrow, urgently upon us in these very days – is the choice: destruction or dissolution as the way. Must the Sword be used to cut the sheath vehemently, violently and perhaps fatally; or is it to be used simply to pierce the veils which hide Guha and through this opening to allow an infiltration of his Light to dissolve the shadow in the tenebrous corridors of Time’s residue.
It is clear that the necessity to use a symbol of the past as the rallying point for the reestablishment of the Dharma indicates a regression. Time moves on. Ram was the 7th Avatar. His mission was fulfilled many hundreds of years ago – nay, thousands, in the 7th Manifestation. Therefore, to speak of or fight for a ‘Ram Rajya’ is a contradiction in terms. It can never come to pass. It is not destined to come to pass. The Time-Spirit will simply not permit it.
But the Time-Spirit may use the symbol to AWAKEN SLEEPING ENERGIES. This has indeed transpired. However, it is at this point that the dramatic moment of choosing is revealed in its true light or purpose: focus on a symbol of the past within the context of Hinduism is, lamentably, a denial of the core of the Sanatan Dharma. It indicates that the ‘ruse’ was successful and still holds sway.
The Line of Ten means precisely a forward march, always stabilised on this Truth-Core, an experience of immobility in the midst of the hurrying pace of Time’s formidably accelerated mobility, as the years unwind and the millennium nears its end. That is, with a firm foundation upholding the progression which provides the mechanism of renewal for the harmonious experience of stability and change. It is a process which alone produces harmonisation and integration required for unity in diversity.
The Ayodhya issue may be a rallying point; it may serve to awaken energies dormant for the past 2000 years; it may even help us to focus our attention on the most vital feature of Hinduism: the Line of Ten Avatars. It may serve to revitalise the Hindu spirit and soul now weighed down by the thick layers cast upon it by invading ideologies far removed from its own truth-core. And this may instill the courage needed to cast those crusts aside definitively. But it cannot be the finality, the goal. It is merely a tool, the result of a totality of prevailing conditions which imposed this regression into the past.
If the Time-Spirit were to permit a plunge into the cosmic residue of frozen energies, Hinduism would not be the Sanatan Dharma. It would be a religion and hence entirely time-bound, with no inbuilt mechanism for renewal. Religions have no such mechanism for authentic change which respects the original substance – especially those that uphold their God as the one and only. Thus they must invariably experience fundamentalist upsurges which are the only possible responses to the pressure for change and progress in the absence of a cosmic mechanism. Similar to all religions, under those shadowy conditions Hinduism would be subject to fossilisation if it sought to preserve its truth-core.
With the exception of the evolutionary process itself, Hinduism is one of the rare expressions on Earth of a progressively unfolding cosmic Truth. Indeed, because its soul is that very Cosmic Truth, it is one with the deepest purpose of the planetary evolution. Hinduism can therefore be identified as the vahana (vehicle) of the Earth’s own soul, a truth exquisitely conveyed in the ancient Vedic symbol of the white steed, Agni, carrying Usha, the divine Dawn, across the horizon of the Earth’s awakening cosmic day.
What is transpiring in India today is not a sudden development catching us unaware. The cosmic harmonies have been indicating the arrival of this turning point in the present decade. These harmonies go very deep in their indications, deeper than is hinted at in the surface happenings. That is, they illumine our understanding to the degree that we see a nation caught up in peripheral struggles. Even the present disintegration of India is peripheral insofar as it is simply a reflection of a missing link between the nation’s outer political, social and economic forms of expression and the innermost truth-core of Hindu civilisation. The absence of that link is the sole cause for the present turmoil and permits the periphery to spin off in every direction. It is not held together by the power of the Core.
Similarly, the questions being asked by intellectuals in many different disciplines and by people in all walks of life concerning secularism, minorityism, majorityism, democracy, communalism, fundamentalism, or national integration, caste and all the rest, are simply further ‘ruses’. The choice before India is only one: the past or the present, the old or the new. The 9th and 10th Avatars hold the key to the new future of Hinduism, as the Line of Ten has always held the key to the reestablishment of the Dharma.
‘…Nothing is more difficult than to bring home the greatness and uplifting power of the spiritual consciousness to the natural man forming the vast majority of the race; for his mind and senses are turned outward towards the external calls of life and its objects and never inwards to the Truth which lies behind them. This external vision and attraction are the essence of the universal blinding force which is designated in Indian philosophy the Ignorance.’
Sri Aurobindo
Foundations of Indian Culture
Part III, Chapter II
Ihave time and again brought up the issue of the misuse of the Rigveda to support the claim that the Aryans of the hymns were historical figures from distant lands who entered Bharat and conquered the indigenous population, bringing with them a superior culture into a largely primitive society. This basic premise has been invoked in countless ways to further the divide-and-rule syndrome. It must be admitted that the tactic was immensely successful and effective. Any attempt to counter the effects of this undermining postulation and to provide a true and faithful interpretation of the Veda engenders a vehement antagonism, or else simply indifference.
But it is not only the misuse of the Rigveda that concerns us. Many other aspects of India’s culture have been similarly misused. And if this is not so evident, there is another aspect to the conspiracy which is perhaps the most damaging. It is the fact that certain means had been provided to re-make or re-structure what had been distorted over the ages. Yet these elements themselves were taken over and perverted to the point where their function became twisted to serve the Falsehood and not the Dharma.
One such case had been the Matrimandir in Auroville. Most unfortunately for the public, that structure is held by the builders, and even disciples of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, to be ‘the Mother’s creation’. But a series of distortions crept into the original plan, the consequences of which have been that it is the Mother’s creation in name only. The Vedic essence she brought down through the original plan has not only been lost but worse, it has been perverted in the extreme. And yet that ‘creation’ was meant to be a central element in the establishment of the ancient Vedic Dharma.
Let me proceed to explain in depth the significance of this loss because pari passu with the loss in terms of sacred architecture and geometry as a means of realigning the Dharma, there is the most important factor of the lost Measure. That is, the misalignment of the time-axis.
Certainly one of the most important discoveries I have made in the field of cosmic harmonies has been the time factor in the Mother’s original plan of the Chamber (see The Gnostic Circle and The New Way, Volumes 1 & 2). Indeed, over the centuries many seekers have attempted to make the same discovery; but lacking a true ‘model of the universe’ provided by an enlightened sage in contemporary times, they have invariably sought for this knowledge in the extant remains of ancient cultures. The Great Pyramid at Giza is one example. Many have been the attempts to read into the Pyramid a time key. The result has always been a speculative mental theory without a firm truth-foundation and not at all a working model applicable to our times.
The Mother’s original plan of the chamber was entirely different. And insofar as the actual construction of the building fell under the rule of Falsehood – or the Lord of Nations, to use the name the Mother once gave to identify this falsifying element operating in our times, – this precious time element was lost in the actual physical building. But it lived on in the realm of Knowledge. It is this that has provided the foundation of the New Way.
But, we must ask, why is it necessary to have this ‘time factor’ at all in a building of that nature, or even in an architectural plan? For it must be pointed out that it is the plan which serves as the Philosopher’s Stone. However, the necessity for such a device has to do precisely with the reestablishment of the Dharma. And in India’s case, given the objective of its millennial destiny which is to ‘conquer Time’ (in contrast to the Egyptian which was to conquer Space), this question of reestablishment is intertwined inextricably with Time.
This, however, is not abstract, as we tend to view any theory involving Time. I shall proceed now to draw very specific connections in this part of the study between the ancient Veda and contemporary Indian society, focusing especially on the elements provided for the reestablishment. This is a work exclusive to the Avataric Line. It is understandable therefore that the Mother, second in the descending scale of the supramental avatars, and as such embodying the Cosmic Divine, was called upon to offer her contribution precisely in the area of the cosmic manifestation. She left humanity, India, with a ‘new model of the universe’. This was the culmination of her mission. But it was not the end of the work, nor of the Line. Two further stages remained and only half the work had been accomplished successfully. The most difficult portion stands before us and its successful completion hinged precisely on the discovery of the time factor in that ‘model’. Without that the exercise would have been entirely sterile, static, non-evolutionary and inorganic: once again simply speculative and abstract. Indeed, for the people of Auroville and the devotees of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in the Ashram and throughout the world, that is all they can extract from the temple. Devoid of Knowledge such a structure is merely a church. It serves as a focal point for the congregation into which it can pour its adoration and aspirations. But it is not a key of Knowledge and never a tool for the Yoga.
Yet, a model of this nature was meant to be something far more than even just an instrument of yoga and personal enlightenment. It was indeed a new model of the universe. Therefore when today we speak of a ‘new world order’, and if the Mother’s creation indeed epitomises the new creation announced by Sri Aurobindo in all his writings, then we are entirely justified in expecting to find that ‘new order’ somehow written into the Mother’s original plan. I shall demonstrate how meticulously this has been the case.
Similarly, if the Mother’s plan is that model and by consequence not only a vessel of knowledge but POWER as well, as a corollary of the former in all true processes of Vedic Yoga, then everything surrounding its creation must reveal what IS. In other words, the distortions brought into the construction by the architects and builders and devotees must be as revealing of our times as the pure, uncontaminated original model.
This is precisely the case, the state of our times: everything has been contaminated. Similar to the Rigveda and the outlandish interpretations foisted upon it, so heavily entrenched in the mind of contemporary Indian academia, the Mother’s original plan underwent a disfiguring in even worse proportions. But if the misuse of the Rigveda tells us everything we need to know about the prevailing consciousness which has settled over the nation in that it reflects an imperialistic, colonising, Euro-centred mindset, the same may be said of the Matrimandir in Auroville. Those in charge of the project are not only European but, to my view, they seem to have been carefully ‘selected’ to represent an important ‘knot’ in the transformative work, centred on architecture and aesthetics; precisely what Sri Aurobindo described in his comparative study of European and Indian culture. This seemed to be a residue from the Italian Renaissance.
The items distorted, the nature of the distortions clearly reflect the consciousness of Falsehood which overtook the project in the mid 1970s – to be precise, at the 4.5 Orbit of that ennead, or July 1975. To give just one example – and I will furnish many more in the course of this study – the crystal the builders have recently installed with great care reflects the surrounding objects and people UPSIDE-DOWN. A person sitting in meditation on one side of the room sees those on the other side reflected onto the crystal but in this topsy-turvy position through this optic inversion.
It goes without saying that such an occurrence would have been unthinkable had the Falsehood not overtaken the construction. In the first place, based on the true Knowledge, that ‘crystal’ should not have been transparent but rather translucent and nothing of the surroundings should have been reflected upon its surface. But at the same time, I repeat, even the distortions help reveal WHAT IS and nothing is more revealing that this topsy-turviness and, more especially, the factor of reflections onto that sphere in the first place. In other words, the sacred, luminous Globe has become simply a tool for the projection of each person’s image rather than a resplendent, self-luminous object, full of its own light and power. It is precisely the work left undone from the Italian Renaissance, which has so heavily coated occidental culture throughout the world. It is the exaltation of the individual as creator, in contrast to the Vedic poise of instrument for the divine manifestation. This ‘new model of the universe’ as it has been built in Auroville displays a singular ego-centredness and distortion, as indeed the ego does inflict upon the human condition: everything we perceive in our state of imbalance, of binary poise and alignment according to this bi-polar reality is similarly flawed, turned upside-down. I shall deal with this imagery further on in greater detail.
This is of course no different than the distortions suffered by the Rigveda which have permitted it to be used to divide-and-rule. And it is certainly most interesting to note that in both cases it is the European who has introduced the distortion, while the Indian meekly accepts and even applauds the act. Equally, as with the Rigveda where any attempt to clear up the misinterpretations meets with contempt and ferocious opposition, any attempt to correct the distortions introduced into the Mother’s original plan, and later the construction, aroused similar if not worse reactions. For the aim of the Lord of Nations is precisely to distort, to disfigure, to pervert. That is, the shell remains in order that the item may retain its name, but it is connected to the true thing in name only: the essence has been squeezed out of the creation by the series of interpretations; or, as in the case of the temple, by a systematic alteration of each item in the Mother’s plan. In this way, by this distortion rather than wholesale rejection and introduction of something else, the builders can continue claiming that it is ‘the Mother’s original plan’ that they have built. Unsuspecting devotees are easily duped. And as far as the disciples go, there are few remaining of the calibre able to distinguish in such matters.
It must be realised that Sri Aurobindo’s work as it stands today in the two centres he and the Mother left is far closer to a religion than a new and vibrant supramental Yoga. Not to speak of the Supramental Manifestation. Indeed, the core of the latter is precisely GNOSIS, knowledge, the truth-consciousness. Vijnana and vidya to replace the colossal ignorance that has overtaken the world as an outcome of the human being’s misalignment of consciousness-being. In fact, this is the exact definition of a ‘reestablishment of the Dharma’. In every age when this hard labour is to be undertaken, in some form or other, we may appreciate that the task involves enlightenment, a casting away of veils, a dissolving of mists and shadows because of which the seeker cannot SEE, cannot perceive the Light and remains entrenched in his or her appalling condition of avidya.
In the case under discussion, what better tactic than to take the Mother’s own plan or model for the new creation of Truth and disfigure it to the point where it remains ‘hers’ in name only, and therefore acquires an unquestionable LEGITIMACY. But its truth-essence has been carefully, meticulously eliminated to the point where Knowledge cannot arise in the seeker through that channel – only a reinforcement of his or her ignorance. In this light, it is clear that the devotee who sits in meditation before an object which reflects his own self upside-down, is indeed being subjected to a formidable power of falsehood. Unless of course the aim is that the Matrimandir be a mirror of the individual’s falsehood and not the higher Truth, in which case to see one’s image inverted would be taken as a mirror of one’s true condition, unmasked and without veils; and as such an immense help on the path. However, I doubt that those who are drawn to participate in that enterprise or to visit the construction would be inclined to assess this upside-down reflection in this way.
Duping the Lord of Nations
The Mother was well aware of the nature of the power she was dealing with when she first gave out her plan for the chamber. Indeed, because of her acute sense of strategy, of ‘stalking’, to use the terminology of don Juan’s unique body of Toltec teaching, she grasped the situation and immediately understood that to save the creation this disfiguring in her name had to be avoided. The Matrimandir, as far as the Mother was concerned, needed to be the architects’ creation entirely. By consequence, she stopped insisting on the adoption of her plan after the 18th day of its revelation, and thereafter seems to have ‘blessed’ each and every change the architects introduced. Within a very short time the entire plan was redone and in such a way that no connection could legitimately be made with her original. It was similar to the urn positioned near the Matrimandir, wherein earth from over a hundred nations was placed for the inaugural ceremony of Auroville in 1968. The Mother had provided a design for the urn, with very exact measurements. This was replaced by the architect and something entirely different came to be executed and installed. It bears no relation at all to the Mother’s original and can in no way be said to be ‘her design’; nor has there ever been any attempt to do so.
This strategy was entirely in keeping with her wisdom, her intimate knowledge of the methods of the force she was dealing with in this Age and the clever tactic of disfiguring while ever clinging to the name of the thing.
We find the same occurrence in the placement of Gautam the Buddha in the 9th position of the Puranic avataric line. Though the true person of knowledge in India knew that this was a ‘ruse of the Supreme’, devised in order to ‘mislead’, the masses could not be expected to grasp the subtleties of such a strategy nor its purpose. Thus, for all practical purposes, the Buddha remains the 9th Avatar, usurping Sri Aurobindo’s position. In this instance too, it is evident that this was not the Buddha’s handiwork but rather those forces which began operating in the beginning of the 9th Manifestation, set upon the destruction of the Vedic Dharma. Similar to the Rigvedic ‘ruse’, the Buddha also became a precious tool in the hands of these forces. At the 9th level of the Puranic Line therefore there stands this aberration which defies any attempt at rectification, similar to the contemporary concrete and steel colossus which has been built in Auroville in the Mother’s name.
Knowing fully the nature of the Lord of Nations and this insidious capacity to distort the true things and disfigure them beyond recognition, the Mother, I repeat, allowed (and perhaps even encouraged) the architects to introduce any changes they liked. This is proven out by the fact that after 17.1.1970, the Mother did not refer to her plan again. The basis of the construction became entirely the architects. We know from the recordings of her conversations up to that date on this subject that she considered the proposed alterations of the architects to be a ‘mixture’ and far below her consciousness. We know that until then the changes were unacceptable to her. But once she realised there was no possibility of her plan being executed in full, she knew that the need of the hour was, similar to the urn episode of several years earlier, to have the architects take over the project entirely and that it should become THEIR building, unrelated to her in any way.
When I entered the scene toward the end of 1971, the foundations were already dug and shortly thereafter actual construction began. In 1974 the plan to be executed was shown to me by the presiding architect for the first time; this was a number of months after the Mother’s departure. It was then in no way recognisable as hers. And this was, I realise now, fully in keeping with her secret intentions. For in this way there could be no confusion in the minds and hearts of seekers. Her creation could not be misused.
To illustrate, the 12 pillars of the original had been eliminated entirely since the architects considered them to be ‘symbolic of the old creation’. The central symbol and pedestal had been removed and in its place a 3-metre hole had been inserted. The symbol that was to form a part of this area was shifted many metres below this void, this central open space in the room, and submerged in a pool of water at ground level. The entrance to the room, so carefully designed and placed by the Mother in her original plan to consist of 15 steps of specific measurements and proportions, and above all at the south end of the chamber, was also eliminated entirely; entrance was changed to two openings through the walls. And in the more subtle sphere, less easily perceived by the naked eye but of far greater importance, the diameter of the room was inaccurately rendered and the 24-metre horizontal plane shortened by close to one metre. In terms of the precision demanded in such a creation and upon which the Mother insisted, this discrepancy makes all the difference between correct axial balance and wrong alignment.
The point I wish to emphasis in the above is that EVERY visible and invisible item of the Mother’s original plan was allowed by her to be changed after 17 January 1970 – so as to reach the point where there could be no indulgence in the age-old and tested tactic of perversion of the true thing while calling it still the ‘original’. The Mother in this sense had outwitted the Lord of Nations. But it would not last long for reasons which I shall detail in this portion of our study in time, cosmos and the Indian reality. Insofar as the outwitting finally failed and the possession and consequent disfiguring did come to pass, I have felt myself obliged to dedicate the better part of my energies to an unmasking of the operation, also because this unmasking forms an essential part in the reestablishment of the dharma. In addition, and more importantly, it was precisely in the effort to unmask and expose the true character of the powers which have overtaken Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work that the real and full Gnosis was brought down and became the weapon of Truth, the sole power I would add, to serve in the reestablishment.
Not a Religion but a Yoga of Transformation
The goal of this 9th Manifestation and the work of the 9th and 10th Avatars is different than that of 6,000 or 12,000 years ago, during Sri Krishna and Sri Ram’s Manifestations, respectively. This 9th Manifestation is characterised by the rise and the establishment of organised, orthodox religions – a phenomenon unknown to the ancient world. In earlier times there was a formal worship, if it may be so called, but the purpose of such a collective expression was not to subjugate the people but rather to create ORDER, to regulate society.
This ‘orderliness’ was especially evident in ancient Egypt, but also in China of old and even pre-Christian Greece and Rome – not to mention the great civilisations of Central and South America. But one of the finest expressions of that Order (ritam is the Vedic term) evolved on the Indian subcontinent. More interestingly, it somehow managed to survive, to be carried over into this Manifestation, unlike all the other civilisations mentioned above. In the effort to survive, however, a strategy of compromise was the result. Indeed, so powerful was this urge to survive that this element of compromise has become a distinguishing and determining feature of Indian history of the past 1500 years. The result has been the disfiguring of the Dharma across the ages, for it must be stated that compromise with the Falsehood is a misconception. When one enters into a concord with that force, the disfiguring begins. Thereafter it is just a question of ‘time’ before the edifice of Truth is completely overtaken by the Ignorance and vidya has been entombed for good.
However, the wisdom of India lies in the fact that the mythic/epic character of the civilisation persisted. And, as I have pointed out earlier in this essay, in myth the true Knowledge has been preserved. Deep in the consciousness of the inhabitants of the subcontinent the higher things were ‘stored’. However, the attitude of compromise did indeed colour the history of Bharat from early Medieval times until today. And unless we come to terms with this element in the national psyche, there will not be the regeneration the collective consciousness demands for the Dharma to be re-established. Indeed, so serious has the situation become that it may no longer be appreciated and accepted that such a task begs to be undertaken. Or if it is accepted as the goal, there are few who can truly appreciate what this entails.
Thus, in the remaining portion of this essay I would like to concentrate on various aspects of this problem. In the process it will become clear that a major scourge of our times, our 9th Manifestation, is the religious consciousness. And by this we mean those partial expressions which rigidly and dogmatically seek to cage in the human consciousness and forbid it to approach the Supreme Truth in the atmosphere of full freedom which any true path of knowledge demands.
In our century fundamentalism has become a major factor to contend with. Indeed, it can be said to be the issue, the focus of the great unmasking and the core of the reestablishment of the Dharma. And precisely because of the tactic of adoption and disfiguring, we are faced with an interesting phenomenon in this sphere. When we mention the need to re-establish the Vedic way, understandably panic sets in among the secular western-oriented intelligentsia. This necessity is immediately perceived as fundamentalism, or a rigid imposition in the present of Hinduism of the past which, though it has experienced a certain regeneration and evolution with time and accommodated itself to the demands of this 20th Century, is still a product of an age of darkness, of a pre-‘enlightenment’, to be introduced later by science. And its reinstatement as imagined by these zealots of occidental secularism is nothing less than obscurantist. Mixed with this is the polity of the nation which seems to be experiencing a shift toward Hindutva or ‘Hindu-ness’, as it is called, particularly evidenced in the popular support of the proposed building of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. This has engendered a panic response in the intelligentsia of the nation. And as is usual in such an emotionally charged atmosphere, reason, logic and clear perception are lost. But in this case something even more precious is glossed over: the true meaning of ‘reestablishment’ and the impossibility to connect it in any way to fundamentalism and hence obscurantism.
If we persist in calling Hinduism a religion, then of course enlightenment on the matter becomes more difficult if not impossible. We have to return to the roots of Hinduism primarily in this area. That is, the first prerequisite is to understand in full that the focus of the discourse is not religion but rather culture, for want of a better word. To be more exact, it is CIVILISATIONAL. What is at stake is the continued survival of Bharat as a civilisation. In India’s case, given the fact that the lines of the civilisation had been established in the distant past and by the attitude of compromise they have been carried over into the present, albeit somewhat disfigured, the parameters of the discourse are thoroughly defined. It is now not a question of compromise – for then the disfiguring would continue and no reestablishment is possible. Rather, the key words are today harmony and integration.
Each religion that has arisen in this 9th Manifestation has established its own particular area of influence. In the effort to maintain supremacy over those areas, wars have been fought, crusades, conquests, and the like. Our history books are full of these ‘glorious’ exploits. But with certain cosmic ‘shifts’ which began in the 1700s, these positions became threatened. A new tactic expressed itself in colonialism and the secular mindset; these were instigators then of the disarray we observe today in world affairs which in certain key areas on the globe have given rise to the reactive response of fundamentalism.
Where then does India stand in this break-up and collapse? Again I must stress that the answer lies beyond Hinduism as a religion and in Bharat as a civilisation. This means that we must re-establish certain fundamental supports which are somehow still holding up the edifice of the nation but are greatly weakened by the distortions accumulated over the ages in the effort to compromise – i.e., to survive.
Thus, it is not a question of returning to the dictates of the Manu Smriti with its time-bound character, or to any other scripture as a fount of dogma. Nor is it simply a question of eschewing ‘foreign’ culture in favour of indigenous expressions or a revival of the arts on the basis of only that which can be acclaimed as Vedic and uncontaminated by any other culture. These activities may accompany the reestablishment we are discussing, but they are not the true channels and focus of what needs to be accomplished. It is not even a question of banning cow slaughter, of a rigid espousal of the caste system as we imagine it to be. Rather, something else is demanded. And it is this ‘something else’ that the Mother bequeathed to India in her original plan of the chamber. This is the key to the reestablishment of the Dharma in very great detail and precision via the correction of the nation’s time-axis in order to realign it with that of the ancient Vedic Age, and all that this act signifies. To comprehend what this may be, we shall explore the matter in detail in this study.
I am aware that this makes little sense to the layman, the devotee, or even the disciple. It is a language of INITIATION. But even this has wider and deeper connotations which we must explore. But to begin with and to make the discourse more easily comprehensible to a wider circle, I will take up one item of ancient civilisations which served to create order and maintain a diversity of expression under one umbrella held by the State over the population, but without a violent imposition of any sort. This was the calendar.
The Cosmic Order, or Unified Diversity
In ancient times the calendar served, to a certain extent, the purpose religions serve today, in particular as of the Middle Ages. Dogma, a rigid belief structure, replaced the cosmic harmony as the organizing principle in society, for the calendar was merely the instrument for carrying the population into that harmony, providing a systematisation (of time) by which that greater Harmony could be lived on Earth collectively and serve to unify the diversity which necessarily characterises any collectivity.
I mentioned earlier that as of the 1700s a shift came about and an element was injected into the earth atmosphere which served to corrode gradually the hold of religions over human society. This element of change was epitomised in the discovery in 1781 of the first of the outer triad of planets, Uranus. From that point onward we observe that accompanying the great expansion we have known as a global civilisation has been the consecutive discovery of two more planets, Neptune in the 1800s (1846) and Pluto in the 1900s (1930). And that expansion of the solar system had to have an effect on the basic contours of our civilisation. This should have been expressed in Hindu civilisation in the re-organisation of its methods of time reckoning and planetary positioning. But this did not take place; rather, as I have discussed extensively in these pages, the Divine Measure, which had been lost in the earlier portion of the 9th Manifestation, has been ‘slipping’ for Hindu civilisation ever since.
I am not alone in lamenting the loss of a correct key to time reckoning and a universal calendar for India. In the realm of secular sciences there is an even greater dismay at the present state of affairs in this domain. To illustrate, recently a seminar was held in Calcutta, sponsored by the Birla Planetarium and the Indian Astronomical Society. The topic of the two-day seminar was the ‘rectification of astronomical parameters published in Indian Panchangs [almanacs].’ The Times of India (13.2.1992, Delhi edition) reports that the eminent astronomers attending the seminar… ‘expressed concern over [the] bewildering variety and multiplicity of various Almanacs mostly based on gross unauthentic and miscalculations [sic] and not in line with astronomical parameters.’
It was lamented that even ’36 years after the implementation of the national Saka calendar’ which was ‘just an adaptation or a phase-shifted version of the Gregorian calendar’, the desired uniformity and accuracy was not achieved. In the keynote address of the secretary of the Society, Prof. A. Bandopadhyay regretted that such a calendar had yet to achieve the ‘desired popularity’ even as it was ‘designed to serve the purpose of a uniform and scientific Panchang.’
‘…Barring Maharastra and Gujarat where almanac compilers have been following correct astronomical parameters, others are still blindly engaged in the conventional process that leaves behind errors and wrong data in the Panchangs.’ (Ibid)
The errors Professor Bandophadyay refers to, I assume, are the positions of the planets in the tropical zodiac and the accumulating error of the inaccurate calculating of the precession of the equinoxes, the latter being the keystone of Hindu astrology/astronomy given the fact that the constellational sphere is used as the backdrop for positioning the planets rather than the tropical zodiac involving the equinoctial alignment discussed briefly in the last portions of this study.
The problem is immensely complex, as I am sure astronomers such as Professor Bandhopadhyay realise. For involved are cultural and even religious elements. It is for this reason that the professor justly points out that even 36 years after the adoption of an official calendar, it has not attained acceptance and the desired popularity. Indeed, the situation is that Hindus, Muslims, Christians and so forth, cling each one to their respective calendars and almanacs and use them to locate the time and place of their festivals and rituals. Needless to say there is no uniformity between these systems insofar as they reflect certain beliefs or are affirmations of reverence for the founder of the religion fixing the start of the count at the founder’s birth or other important dates in the evolution of the religion. They do not pretend to be accurate cosmic dials, unlike the Hindu almanacs which traditionally bore respect for the actual astronomical phenomena rather than a revered figure of the faith.
Bringing all this into harmony in a society and devising a calendar acceptable to all communities and sects is understandably impossible. Soon after Independence the Government of India realised that this situation needed attention if India was to function in a global secular society and occupy therein any position of relevance. The adoption of the official calendar was a step in that direction and intended to facilitate the new nation’s integration into the world community. Insofar as that community regulates its affairs on the basis of the Gregorian (Christian) calendar, the official Saka calendar was established on that model. This naturally could not have any emotional appeal to the majority Hindu community or even the Muslim. Thus there remains this split in the nation in this regard. Officially there is one system of time reckoning, but culturally and emotionally the cogs in the wheel of the national consciousness move at a different pace. Indeed, there are many such ‘cogs’ and they are all at odds with each other. Hence, the despair of the astronomer. This is similar in a way to the adoption of a national language intended to integrate the nation and the difficulties experienced in bringing the whole nation to accept the selection.
Regarding the calendar, the problem cannot be solved if it remains in the domain of religion – for example, a Christian choice over a Hindu, and so on. But insofar as Hindu astronomy became scientifically oriented when the split between science and spirituality was consolidated, the latter can be expected to understand the problem far better than any other community. Nonetheless, the irritant will remain when the Gregorian calendar gains supremacy, in particular as an aftermath of the imperialist, colonial age.
The question is therefore, Does a method exist to systematise the flow of time and the cosmic process which rises above these sectarian preferences and encompasses a more universal concept, one that can be accepted by all sections of the society?
I have laid great emphasis on India’s destiny to ‘conquer Time’. By this I do not mean to do violence to Time but rather to integrate this fundamental aspect of our material manifestation into a sort of ‘unified theory’ similar to what science seeks in order to evolve a ‘grand design’ which will explain the whole of the cosmic process. I am proposing this not within the parameters of current scientific thought but rather in harmony with the unalterable destiny and by consequence in tune with the deepest and widest parameters of India’s cultural and spiritual essence. This may not be appreciated by the scientific/academic community, though the result would not further aggravate the complex problem of adoption of a uniform calendar but would rather facilitate India’s integration into the world community, not merely officially but emotionally as well. In the process, within her own borders an integration would result when this question of time and cosmos is fully grasped and its relation to the ancient Veda established on the right foundation.
Nothing of this has happened so far. One need only review the research done by proponents of a ‘Vedic calendar’ to understand that the Lost Measure entails first and foremost a loss of the correct understanding of what it is that must be measured. That is, what is the principle which must govern such an undertaking – for in this discovery lies the key to a retrieval of the divine Maya or Measure.
My investigations have brought me to conclude that unless the current Hindu system of time/astronomical reckoning is taken as the all-important indication of the choices India made in the past which then permitted invasions, conquests, subjugations and the general decline of the civilisation, it will not be possible to bring any correction about. That is, the probe has to be pushed to the root of the problem. If a rectification is to come about which will be acceptable to Hindu society, we must disclose what transpired in Hinduism, and when, to bring the nation to its present state of confusion in this area, so vital for the proper fulfilment of India’s higher destiny.
For me the matter is wonderfully clear: the measure was ‘lost’ when the spiritual endeavour veered BEYOND the cosmic manifestation; and that Beyond then became the focus of the quest. This problem is an ancient one, though it acquired the power to pervert the destiny only after the onset of the 9th Manifestation, or after 234 BC. In the Atharvaveda this juxtaposition is confirmed and a certain conflict that it produced in the seeker when we read,
‘The branch of Nonbeing which is far-extending
men take to be the highest of all.
They reckon as inferior those who worship
your other branch, the branch of Being.’
Or else,
‘Great are the Gods who were born from Nonbeing,
yet men aver this Nonbeing to be
the single limb of the support, the great Beyond.’
However, in the age of this particular Veda, that Beyond was not yet the victor. Indeed, these verses to Skambha (‘the Support’) are the clear proof that at least up until that age, Skambha was the object of the spiritual endeavour and not the Beyond, or the Nonbeing. It was this axis mundi, this ‘binding energy’ of a ‘centre that holds’, or the national consciousness held together by this principle in an harmonious whole. The hymns to Skambha are exemplary in that they are the clearest description of what I came to call in the 1980s, the Yoga of the Chamber. This Yoga is EARTH-oriented. It forges that ‘skambha’ or Point; and from this ‘seed’ the entire cosmic manifestation has come into being. Contemporary science calls it the ‘singularity’ which resulted in the Big Bang, the theory upon which 20th Century cosmology is based. Science does not treat the question of what lay beyond that singularity, or what came before the so-called Big Bang. But the Atharvaveda does. The essence of these hymns is precisely the careful, faithful and exquisite description of that bridge, that cosmic ‘pillar’ (Skambha) which connects the two dimensions:
‘Men recognise the Golden Embryo [Hiranyagarbha]
as the unutterable, the Supreme.
Yet it was the Support [Skambha] who in the beginning
poured forth upon the world that stream of gold…’.
In other words, the Hiranyagarbha, or Golden Womb, is thought to be the FIRST step in the cosmic manifestation. But this verse makes it clear that prior to that ‘womb’ – or in the terms of 20th Century cosmology, the Big Bang – there came into ‘existence’ the Pillar or the bridge between that Beyond or Nonbeing and this material dimension. This is the ‘singularity’ science is seeking to establish. In the new cosmology which integrates the before and after, the first point of space is the ‘pillar’ formed by the 9, 6, and 3 as degrees of time-energy, compressed into this ‘singularity’, thus fully in keeping with the early Vedic perception, in particular the references in the Rigveda to Agni in the form of the Universal Purush… ‘With his vast and ample upbearing he props up the firmament like a pillar’ (RV, IV,5,1)
This forces us to ask where in the Middle East or in Europe of the the time of the ‘Aryan invasion’ were similar concepts expressed? That is, if the Aryans brought these profound perceptions into India from beyond, where is there any evidence of a civilisation which had similar perceptions? But more than that, which was entirely founded on those perceptions? On the other hand, the Veda, starting with the first book, the Rigveda itself, considered to be of much earlier composition than the Atharvaveda, speaks of nothing else. The hymns do not indicate the faint beginnings of perception of a ‘supreme cause’ as scholars such as H. J. J. Winter imagine, and that a gradual development began with these ‘Aryan invasions’ which finally resulted in the highly evolved sciences and philosophies we know from the Upanishadic period and beyond, into medieval times. The hymns describe as an APEX, a civilisation at the height of its spiritual and cultural creativity. Thereafter the decline began and these sacred ‘measures’ were lost, precisely when powers arose which had no understanding of these profound concepts and realisations, – and the tactic of undermining began.
I must return to the question I posed earlier on in his essay: What was it that had to be undermined for the fast and furious decline to set in? It was precisely that point, that Skambha. Science, as separate from the spiritual arose and gained supremacy in India after that Point had been effectively eliminated or hidden under impenetrable veils. Hence we have the later myth of Guha, the veiled hidden One, the Puranic counterpart of Agni and Skambha. What I mean to demonstrate by establishing these simple connections is how that original high perception came to be transferred to the myth and thus PRESERVED in the collective consciousness during the full period of the decline, conquest and subjugation of the race.
In our times we have even clearer evidence of the great Undermining in the Matrimandir. For in what way have the builders of the pseudo-temple captured this fact of India’s spiritual and material evolution, this undermining of the Point? In the architect’s own words, he explains why he left the centremost Point of the room’s floor empty, void.
‘It is symbolic: I do not think you will be able to see it in the daytime, as the natural sunlight will be too strong. But in the evening maybe a tiny spot of light will be visible underneath the floor of the Chamber’… (Auroville Today, August 1991)
Given the extraordinary significance of the central Point in the Dharma, the public has every right to demand of the architect what ‘symbolism’ he is referring to when he makes this statement, apparently with sound authoritative knowledge of such matters, that the ‘void’ in place of the solid and concrete Point is ‘symbolic’. Clearly he can have no satisfying answer. Once again, he has been merely a tool of the Ignorance. But in this way the ‘temple’ these commercial architects and builders have constructed is nonetheless allied to the Knowledge but in the NEGATIVE, by this symbolism revealing the reality of what IS, the realistic conditions to be seen and then finally transformed.
The great Undermining attacked the collective Will. This is amply confirmed by the Knowledge in that Agni, (Skambha or the Point) is referred to precisely as ‘…the divine Will working in the worlds’. Vedic Agni is the divine particle in the human being which holds his or her consciousness together and centred on this divine element rather than the dark ‘sun’ of the ego. The objective of the Vedic Yoga is the shift from a binary to a unitary creation. The means by which to achieve this end is through realisation of that Point, that perfect centre, that Skambha or pillar upholding the world and the axis around which the human consciousness itself is structured, in the apt aphorism, ‘As above, so below’.
‘As the unborn he has held the wide earth, he has up-pillared heaven with his Mantras of truth. Guard the cherished footprints of the Cow of vision; O Agni, thou art universal life, enter into the secrecy of the secret Cave.’ (RV, I, 67,3)
If we understand this then we are in a position to comprehend what it is that must be measured, and why I can state that wisemen, after the Undermining, lost sight of what that meant. To be precise, the Point is the axis of the soul, or the END of the Skambha or ‘pillar’ connecting the Transcendent to the Immanent. This may be individual or collective. It may as well be civilisational, and even involving the physical boundaries of a nation. In India’s case this is beautifully clear: the soul-axis, or the Pillar/Point, is located in the individual and in the civilisation, as well as the very geography of the country, because all these have been contained or integrated in a philosophy and spirituality wherein they are integral, interrelated parts. We do not find this demonstrated in any other civilisation or belief system. Though fundamentalist movements attempt to bring about a sort of integrated relationship between citizen, state and religion. Or in Israel’s case, the desire to read a divine sanction into the acquisition of land which conflicts with the ground reality in the area.
The reason why this integral approach is easily perceived in India’s case still today is because of the cosmic foundation of the Vedic Dharma. This is not relative or time-bound. That is, it does not hinge on reinstating values of past epochs, or else on an individual, a prophet, a founder, a saint; or even a book, a sacred scripture. It relies on the Cosmic Harmony which is an eternal scripture, ever in the process of evolution and expansion. As the human consciousness widens and perception is heightened, both spiritually and scientifically, that much more can be extracted from this cosmic Script. There is no final word, no definitive ‘interpretation’. But there are certain principles, laws; and these are indeed eternal and unchanging. This unchanging foundation in the Law (Varun of the Veda), the Dharma, is the single most important element of Hinduism. The Measure which was lost implied that a certain aspect of this Law was missed or lost sight of. This was precisely the centremost position of that Point or Skambha in the Dharma, so beautifully symbolised in the pseudo-temple in Auroville by the 4-cm VOID in the room right where that Point should have been lodged with reverence and knowledge. I repeat, this pillar/point is the soul’s axis. On this Principle or Law the entire material manifestation is founded. The evolution of the cosmos began with this Point, this soul-axis…
‘The One on whom the Lord of Life [Prajapati]
leant for support when he propped up the world –
Tell me of that Support [Skambha] – who may he be?
‘That which of all forms the Lord of Life
created – above, below, and in between –
with how much of himself penetrated the Support?
How long was the portion that did not enter?
‘With how much of himself penetrated the Support
into the past? With how much into the Future?
In that single limb whose thousand parts he fashioned
with how much of himself did he enter, that Support?’
(Athar.X,7)
Inasmuch as the human being is located on the planet Earth, at the third orbit of the solar system, this planet is that same ‘centre’ or ‘soul’, being the third measure from the Sun. More specifically, the planet is like a womb. And in that ‘womb’ we find the Point, Skambha or Agni of the Veda. It is for this very reason that so much importance is attached to the planet’s axial alignment and I have stated that it is in understanding this tilt that we can know the most profound aspects of our destiny as a planetary society, as an evolving collective consciousness. For that axial tilt is representative of the soul-axis which the planet itself must experience as a CONSCIOUS PROCESS through the collective yoga of the species, – or at least a representative portion of the human species. And that this Yoga or process is played out in India.
In the Solar Line the Third is the ‘bridge’ or ‘pillar’ – the connection to the Transcendent (9), and through whom that Power is reborn as the Fourth, the One or the Point. Thus, what constitutes the cosmic reality in macrocosmic terms, is a feature of our solar system; and it is lived by the Solar Line whose members enact this creative process in Earth-time:
‘The young Mother bears the Boy pressed down in her secret being and gives him not to the Father; but his force is not diminished, the people behold him established in front in the upward workings of things.
‘Who is this Boy, O young Mother, whom thou bearest in thyself when thou art compressed into form, but thy vastness gives him birth? For many seasons the Child grew in the womb; I saw him born when the Mother brought him forth’. (Rigveda, Secrets of the Veda, ‘Hymns to Agni’, Sri Aurobindo, CE, Vol.10, p.367).
When secret knowledge is revealed regarding the ‘compression’ to a ‘point’, the role of the ‘young Mother’ or the Third Power in giving birth to this ‘compressed point’, no longer can these verses be held as obscure, esoteric, or even exclusively for the Initiate. The existence and activities of the Solar Line have definitively brought the Veda down to Earth. The above describes with very great precision the process as it has been lived by the Line, mirroring the cosmic act of creation which science is seeking to unravel. The very first line makes the process clear, ‘The young Mother bears the Boy PRESSED DOWN…and gives him not to the Father’… The ‘Father’ is the Transcendent. The meaning is that this ‘Boy’ (Agni or Skambha or the ‘compressed Point’), is not drawn up into the Transcendent, or the Beyond – for that is the whole objective of the Vedic quest. At the same time, the hymn states that by this compression and emergence from the Womb of the young Mother, the Father’s ‘force is not diminished’. After the birth of that Point ‘the people’ experience this power ‘in front in the upward working of things’. There is perhaps no clearer rendering of the REVERSAL I have often described, precisely relating to the Fourth Power, the Son of the Solar Line, who introduces the horizontal plane after the ‘compressed vertical descent’ of the 9 and 6 and 3. The role of the Third is very clearly defined in these hymns as the power to give form to this compressed Point, within which is contained the full force of the vast Transcendent. This is the description of the birth of the Father (Transcendent), through the 6 and 3, the ‘mothers’, the latter of which is the Third Power of the Line and through whom the birth actually takes place – i.e., the Transcendent is compressed to emerge in the cosmic manifestation as the Immanent. Then, after the Reversal, the ‘upward workings of things’ can begin.
In this light, it can be appreciated that I am not exaggerating when I state that the Rigveda describes a yogic process and can in no way be interpreted as an historic document, or even a manual of ritual as it came to be viewed after the divine Maya or Measure was lost. Having lived this very process in full, I feel I am entitled to challenge the upholders of the ‘historic interpretation’ on every point they have made in support of their theory, a falsification which has done immense harm to the process of national integration.
The Third of the Solar Line equals the Earth in the new cosmology. The connection between the Earth and the Point, or Agni, is borne out by the Rigveda in the hymns to Usha, the divine Dawn, an aspect of the Earth, and her relation to Agni in the form of the white Steed:
‘Blazing out brilliant as the lover of the Dawn, filling the two equal worlds like the Light of Heaven, thou art born by our will and comest into being all around us; thou hast become the father of the Gods, thou who art the Son.
‘Very bright and lustrous is he like the lover of the Dawn. May his form be known and may he wake to the knowledge for this human being, may all bear him in themselves, part wide the Doors, and come to the Seeing of the Sun.’ (Rigveda, I,69,1-5, Hymns to the Mystic Fire, Sri Aurobindo, CE, Vol.11, p.56-7).
But the relationship between Earth and the Fourth is even more explicitly stated in the Puranas where the Earth as a planet is said to have given birth or form to Mars. This tallies exactly with the new cosmology and the details of the Solar Line in that it is the Third (Earth) who gives birth or form to the Fourth (Mars). The cosmological formula is simply a numerical rendering of the myth.
However, what brings these tales and formulas out of the realm of ‘symbols’ or abstract ideas is TIME. When the above is connected to actual births in time of a third ‘principle’ or a fourth, and that the details of these births as verified in a universal calendar are completely in harmony with the Knowledge and serve to render it concrete and no longer abstract, the quest undergoes a notable shift. It is no longer directed to a beyond, an extra-cosmic dimension. It is Earth-oriented. As the myth reveals, the Earth carries that Point in her ‘womb’. To actualise that in a yogic process and thereby to establish that Point as the ‘support’ or Will, both individually and collectively, societal and civilisational, then the message of the Hindu Temple has to be taken very seriously: the garbhagriha or ‘womb-house’ has to be respected and acknowledged as the focus of the Dharma, symbolically rendered in the Hindu Temple in this way. Or, conversely, denied in the rendering of the Matrimandir in Auroville by the elimination of that Point, centremost in the room.
When these elements of the Dharma are understood, then it becomes clear that in order to retrieve a correct measure of Time and that this becomes reflected in the acceptance of a calendar and astronomical system of positioning which serves that Dharma in full rather than to make confusion worse confounded, then the Yoga of the Veda has to be experienced. This means an entire reevaluation of all the spirituality India has been practising since the Middle Ages in the light of this retrieval of the divine Measure. To return to the Vedic ROOTS, or to reestablish the Dharma, demands that this Yoga be experienced. Otherwise what is it we are seeking to re-establish?
India, in the unconscious but controlled unfolding of her destiny, acknowledges time and again this sacred process and the central role it plays in the civilisation. We confirm this by the exactitude of this same cosmic harmony reflected not only in the birth of the members of the Solar Line but the Lunar Line of the Nehrus as well. In addition, we note that the Government of India adopted an official calendar based on the Gregorian (universal) model. For indeed, these harmonies cannot be verified in the Hindu calendar. Relying on that they would have been lost and the process rendered futile. To lay emphasis on this fact, we also note that this official adoption took place in 1956, or the very year of the Supramental Manifestation. This occurred on 29.2.1956, and it was the signal that ‘the time had come’ and the Harmony or formula would begin to play a pivotal role as the key to ‘the organisation of supermind for Earth-use’. For that, India had to have a universal calendar from that very year.
The evolution of the Matrimandir in Auroville and the manner in which the architects and builders, in complete ignorance of sacred architecture of any school, so easily gained possession of the construction and maintained control over it in spite of all attempts to retrieve the building and make of it a womb of Truth rather than a tomb of the Knowledge as it presently is, is evidence of the almost impossible task ahead. However, some gains have been made, precisely because of that ‘victory’ of the Falsehood. These gains arose because the victory of the Shadow FORCED the Knowledge to descend. That is, given the ignorance and opposition I was faced with in the Matrimandir, and perceiving the terrible loss for humanity which would result from an acceptance of that victory as definitive, with nothing of the higher aspects of the Mother’s original plan allowed to reach the public because of this possession, all I could do was to experience the Yoga, realise that Skambha – and in the process to resurrect the ancient Yoga of the Veda. I must confess that had the builders accepted the Mother’s plan unquestioningly from the beginning, there would have been no need for ‘the Yoga of the Chamber’. In which case, nothing of what needed to be reestablished, in its highest, deepest and widest sense, would have been known.
Defining the Time/Soul Axis
The essential lines of the Yoga of the Earth, or the birth of Mars, or Agni, or the Point, were given by the Mother in her original plan of the Chamber. To begin with, her specification regarding the entrance into the chamber emphasises the points I have made regarding the axial tilt of the Earth and the fundamental part the Tropics and Equinoxes and Solstices play in the Yoga. The Mother appears to have been fully aware of this connection, if her original plan of the Chamber is any indication. This is amply borne out by the fact that she positioned the entrance into the chamber precisely at the south end. The Mother was emphatic that this entrance should not only be located south, but that it should pierce the floor – or the horizontal plane of the room.
I am presenting here the floor plan of the chamber as designed by the Mother. It can be noted that the stairway rises into the chamber from below and is specifically located to penetrate the room from a certain position. In terms of symbolic/aesthetic representation, this position serves first of all to emphasise the quality of a plane which the Mother desired to bring forth in her design. All the ‘action’ was to be on this plane; and she was greatly disturbed when the architects and disciple kept insisting on changing her design with numerous entrances piercing not that horizontal plane but the circumscribing walls. This impertinent insistence, preserved on tape at the time, revealed a singular ignorance of what exactly the Mother wished to capture in her design: the harmony of the cosmos, centred on this third planet Earth; though in her recorded conversations on the subject she is revealed to be more than clear about the matter, explicitly relating the 12 walls, for example, to the months of the year – in other words, the zodiac.
What emerges from the analysis of her plan, supported by her own recorded comments during the 18 days when she sought to defend her vision before this outrageous demolition campaign waged by the architects and the disciple, and later carried through by the actual builders of the pseudo-temple, is that there are DIRECTIONS emphasised: horizontal and vertical. The former is the ecliptic, or the equatorial plane if we wish to connect it specifically to the axial tilt of the Earth and the solstice/equinoctial points in calendar time. This is the base, in the sense that I have written in the last two issues of VISHAAL regarding the foundational plane of the Veda, extending from the Sun of Gnosis. By designing the entrance opening right into and onto this plane, the Mother was establishing the first all-important fact of the chamber’s symbolism: the seeker’s merging into that plane as he or she enters the room, and is sustained by that Base. In addition, the foundational plane is the space dimension and the physical proper. But the design she gave goes much further. It provokes the experience. I shall explain in what way.
Thus, there is also a vertical direction emphasised in the Chamber’s original design. This is brought forth first and foremost by the descending central Ray (of the Sun), as well as the walls and pillars. This direction relates to TIME, above all else. The Mother made this clear when she spoke of the walls representing the months of the year.
However, all of this would remain in the realm of the ‘symbolic’ or ‘representative’, if Time had not added its power to the Mother’s creative act. To make this clear I must again remind the reader of the singular importance of the Earth’s axial tilt and the extreme importance of the solstices in this planetary feature. We have then the very same directions emphasised in the solstices and equinoxes as in the chamber’s original plan. The solstices correspond to the vertical/time direction; the equinoxes to the horizontal/space. This is clear if we note what it is that happens at the equinoxes of March and September: the equatorial plane is level with the ecliptic extending from the Sun. That is, the horizontal expanse experiences this harmonisation by the convergence of these two planes. As for the Earth, this levelling results in an equal distribution of day and night.
In the vaster movement of the Ages, this equatorial plane serves another purpose. It is akin to the ascendant in a person’s horoscope – or the ascending/descending plane in the chart. Given a particular motion of the earth similar to the wobble of a spinning top, this slowly revolving plane traces a circle in the heavens. The equinoctial plane requires 25,920 years to trace one full circle in the heavens. It is drawn on the backdrop of the constellational sphere traditionally. The only difficulty is that no one is in agreement about what point to establish as the zero demarcation of that greater circle, or the beginning of the constellational wheel. Consequently, given this discrepancy of opinion, none can agree on the date of the beginning of our own period, the Age of Aquarius. For it is this slow gyration of the Earth’s equatorial plane measured on the constellational wheel that establishes which astrological age we are in and when that began or comes to an end.
In India the matter assumes great importance insofar as all calculations for horoscopes, festival timings, etc, utilise this constellational point or demarcator rather than the zero point of the tropical zodiac. I have dealt with this situation extensively earlier in this essay and elsewhere and its consequences for the civilisation. My point in bringing up the issue again is simply to explain how the Mother sought to reorient the focus of time reckoning in India via her original plan of the chamber. But if certain key features of her design are not appreciated, then no coherent body of knowledge is forthcoming from her plan, whose purpose it is precisely to bring about this reorientation and establishment of the Vedic Dharma.
Thus the Globe in her original design is equal to the Earth. The symbolism in connection with the ancient Veda and the Puranas is perfectly clear when this equivalence is known because then the point, (left void by the builders in Auroville) is exactly beneath that Globe and centred at the base of the closed pedestal (open in the Auroville construction); and this position is the One born of the Third, or Mars born of the Earth. It is perfectly in harmony with the Knowledge for the Point is then both centre of the circle as well as axis. That is, it is the end of the solar ray which is indeed the axis of the entire chamber. But it is a TIME-AXIS and by consequence a SOUL-AXIS. This is the extraordinary Knowledge the Mother was able to capture in her creation, simply because she designed a most faithful reproduction of the cosmic harmony centred and converging on the planet Earth.
Further, the true Globe, in contrast to the falsifying ‘crystal’ designed by the architect and builders of the pseudo-temple, should have been fashioned IN INDIA, insofar as the Globe is both the Earth and Bharat. (More on this most important aspect further on.) Germany, where the architect commissioned the crystal, was entirely inappropriate inasmuch as it was the seat of the Lord of Nations openly until just recently; and that power continues to operate, less obviously though still potently falsifying, through channels precisely centred on the Mother’s work. Again for the Seer there is no lie: the ‘choice’ was the right one. Nothing better explains the decline, and now the supremacy of the Falsehood than this aspect of the pseudo-temple’s history.
To be effective as an instrument for the reestablishment, all of this had to be executed faithfully and in full knowledge, unlike what actually came to pass in Auroville where commercial architects took over the project and blatantly destroyed the chamber’s Vedic content. Purposely, it would seem. For it is hard to imagine that without this premeditated design anyone ignorant of occultism, temple building or cosmology would have dared to interfere with the Mother’s creation. The architect-in-charge has made the statement that the completion of this project was ‘…a deep fulfilment, the purpose of my life realised’… (Auroville Today, January 1992). One is inclined to enquire what exactly that might mean, given the nature of what he finally constructed as the Matrimandir, and supposedly ‘faithful to the original’.
To return to the stairway and entrance and its singular importance, we must note that in any attempt to create a piece of sacred architecture, the observer’s first contact with the symbol is of foremost importance. It establishes the ‘seed’ of the experience.
The Mother was not unaware of this fact and she made sure in her original plan that this aspect would be respected. Time collaborated in full in the process because not only did she design the entrance at the specific SOUTH END of the room’s floor plan, she saw and measured the creation at the right time – that is, over the only few days in the year which would bear witness to and corroborate what I have written above regarding the chamber’s horizontal and vertical directions; the former of space, the latter of time.
Thus, in the plan the entrance was placed at the south point of the (equatorial) plane. This, in terms of the all-important axial tilt and the resultant Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn is equivalent to the southernmost sign of the zodiac, the nadir of the dakshinayana of Hindu astronomy, – Cancer. Its opposite pole is the most auspicious Festival of Light beginning at the December Solstice or the 0° of Capricorn, India’s own astrological ruler and the hieroglyph of which delineates the nation’s physical contours. Indeed, the Mother ‘saw’ this chamber exactly in the heart of the Festival of Light; and even more uncannily, exactly in the segment of zodiacal time which I have come to designate as the 5° (of celestial longitude) of the chamber. That is, from 10° Capricorn to 15° – or January 1st to 5th. This is also the period of perihelion, when the Earth moves closest to the Sun each year.
Two elements joined in the Mother’s creative act in this way. It was as if the Mother had indeed entered the room in the subtle dimension (indeed her description of the experience does seem to indicate this very physical act) and then recorded what she had ‘seen’. But this she could only do with Time’s collaboration. That is, as the Earth reached these particular degrees of celestial longitude of the chamber, a veil was drawn aside and the Mother in her subtle physical body entered that magical space, that ‘hidden chamber closed and mute’.
In the space of those 5 days/degrees, the act of Seeing and Measuring was completed. Thereafter, the Mother presented her original plan, especially drawn up for her by an Ashram engineer, to the disciple and architects. And that was the end of her extraordinary vision. From that point onward the story of its execution has been a devastating denial of all that her original plan embodied.
The Festival of Light covers an expanse of 15 degrees/days from the solstice of December 21/22 to January 5th and the 15th degree of Capricorn. Clearly the Mother sought to carry the seeker into the chamber focusing on this phenomenon: the increase of the Light. She did so by explicitly designing 15 steps into the chamber. And the seeker, while mounting these steps (days) and entering the room would indeed experience the increasing Light by virtue of the fact that his or her eyes would be riveted during the ascension on the descending central Ray of Light. This Ray would ‘increase’ before his or her eyes with every step taken, until the seeker would stand on the horizontal plane of the chamber, at the 15th step (or the 15th degree of Capricorn, Cosmic Midday) and the peak of the Festival of Light when the Sun ‘casts no shadows’. This culmination would signify the seeing of the full Ray descending onto the Globe which represents not only the Earth and India but his or her own soul.
The architects and builders of the Matrimandir deprived future devotees and seekers of this experience when they decided to eliminate that 15-step, south-end entrance from below. In the words of the presiding architect…
‘The existing structure has been made with the maximum respect for the Mother’s vision… The room today is as faithful to the original design as it can possible [possibly?] be. Only one thing [!] couldn’t be respected: the underground entrance with direct access to the room at ground level. This particular aspect has been lost due to the room being 15 metres above ground level in the middle of the sphere.’ (Ibid)
Thus the architects succeeded in introducing their own ‘mixture’ (in the Mother’s own words) by eliminating this superb item of sacred Vedic symbolism and obliging visitors to enter the room through doors piercing the walls – expedient of course, but an architectural problem entirely resolvable if the will had existed to do so. What they have put in its place is totally devoid of ‘sense’. Contrasting with the Mother’s explanation that everything in her original design had a ‘sense’. As such, every detail was sacred and inviolable.
Ayodhya and the Mother’s Chamber
In the Special Issue of the December solstice (incorporated in TVN 6/5, December 1991), dedicated to the epiphany of the Ramlal idol in the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya exactly on the solstice of 1949, as another exercise in ‘rectification’, I discuss how attention was drawn to the same Festival of Light highlighted by the appearance of the Child Ram on that very night. Now we note that in a similar attempt at rectification through the channel of a divine Seeing, the Mother has also laid emphasis on the very same segment of time. Its importance lies in the fact that it is the true Makar Sankranti, or ‘gateway to Capricorn’. And this is the divine Measure which must be retrieved, symbolised in the Rigveda as the ‘lost Cow’, or in the more accurate translation, ‘the Lost Ray’.
But there are many more similarities between the Matrimandir as it has been constructed in Auroville and the Ram Janambhoomi/Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. In both places we have structures standing on hallowed spots which are in stark contrast to the essence of that sacredness. The mosque in Ayodhya is offensive to most Hindus because it represents the introduction of an alien concept right where it hurts mosts, so to speak. That is, on the location which is believed to have been the birthplace of Lord Ram, 7th Avatar of Hindu tradition. Whether or not this is factual is really not the issue since the Moghul Emperor Babar’s intension was to strike a blow at that belief, regardless if it was actually the spot or not. It was believed to be, then and now; therefore he installed a mosque right there, as was the practice in those times. Understandably, Hindus have ever since been attempting to demolish the structure and erect a temple in its place honouring Ram.
This pertains to the 7th Avatar of the Line. But what of the 8th, 9th and 10th? Are they similarly embroiled in ‘controversy’?
Indeed, Sri Krishna, the 8th, also experienced a squeezing out from his birthplace at Mathura. It was also overtaken by a mosque in a similar attempt to undermine the avataric belief. We must view these occurrences in their proper perspective and appreciate that such acts were the accepted practice for conquering armies in those days. And the buildings were intended to endure as a perennial reminder to the subject civilisation of the supremacy of the conqueror and his ability to demolish the cornerstones of the culture, demonstrating in the act the impotency of the populace and by consequence the superior strength of the invader.
History confirms this impotency by recording the contrasting Spanish expulsion of the Islamic conquerors (and the Jews) just before the time of Babar’s take-over in Ayodhya and the native population’s inability to react. But Spain, after close to 800 years of foreign rule, was able finally to expel the invaders because it was a nation on the rise, facing a brilliant colonising period. Indeed, it was Spain that in the very year the Jews were expelled, sponsored Columbus’s voyage in the discovery of the America’s (India?). On the other hand, India was a civilisation in full decline, at the nadir of her power and collective will. Whether the Spaniards were morally correct in what they did, or even Babar for that matter, is not the issue. My point is simply to demonstrate the ability of a nation to confront and expel foreign rulers after an 800-year occupation, in contrast to India’s incapacity to exert its will and force any definitive expulsion.
However, it is understandable that if something of a resurrection of the collective will begins to take place, attention will automatically be turned to these sore points such as Ayodhya and Mathura – and, right on time. They should be treated therefore as indications of that awakening by ALL sections of the society.
Thus, Ramlal made his ‘surreptitious’ appearance in the Babri Mosque exactly on time – both day and year. For it was precisely thereafter, in 1950, that Sri Aurobindo left his body and began the process of ‘giving form to the Point’ (that Will), or Agni, or Skambha via the Third Power of the Solar Line. Through Ramlal’s epiphany the focus turned decidedly on the Avatar, at the very time significant steps were being taken by him to bring the work of the Line to completion.
But similar to the Ram and Krishna sacred sites, we find Sri Aurobindo’s, the 9th Avatar of the same Line, equally invaded by a building which stands in stark contrast to the original essence. Indeed, in Sri Aurobindo’s case the situation is far worse that in Ayodhya or Mathura. In Auroville the Mother’s plan was perverted though retaining its name, thereby duping the unsuspecting seekers. In Ayodhya and Mathura this is not the case. The invaders made no attempt to dupe. They were far too honest. They simply tore down and rebuilt according to their fervent beliefs. The defence of these ‘statements of conquests’ by sections of contemporary Indian society is equally honest in that it is a defence of beliefs and monuments which symbolise those beliefs accurately. They are not monuments pretending to be Hindu but perverting the symbolism in order to dupe the seeker.
This, lamentably, is what we find in Auroville. Hence the upside-down reflection of the seeker in the central crystal. But duping or not, the similarities between Ayodhya, Mathura and Auroville remain: to demolish and rebuild, or not to demolish and rebuild. And in each case the heart of the issue is the Avatar, the last four of the Puranic Line. To be exact, Sri Ram, the 7th, Sri Krishna, the 8th, Sri Aurobindo, the 9th, and the 10th – or Sri Aurobindo as the resurrected Will, as the One.
It can be appreciated that this is an extremely complex issue with numerous ramifications and consequences. We shall explore them all in the course of this study in time, cosmos and the Indian destiny. In the process, perhaps the conundrum – to demolish and build, or not to demolish and build – will be resolved.
The Atmosphere of Trickery, Negation and Falsehood
It would seem as if in the course of my work I have been channeling too much energy into an exposure of the architects’ distortions of the Mother’s original plan in the pseudo-temple in Auroville. But, insofar as they persist in calling it ‘the original’, and ‘as faithful as possible’ to her vision, any serious disciple or student of the Mother’s work would welcome such an exposure, for not to denounce it is the same as saying, ‘I prefer darkness and ignorance and to be an instrument thereof.’ Indeed, in this age of compromise, when it is considered dogmatic and intolerant to be precise in such matters, the powers-that-be have in fact labelled all attempts to bring the true position to light as bigoted, dogmatic and an attempt at ‘making a religion of Sri Aurobindo’s work’.
Ironically, the real method to convert a path of Knowledge such as his into a religion is by squeezing out of it that higher content. And this is precisely what has been done in Auroville with the Mother’s plan. Hence, inasmuch as there is no lie for the Seer, the crystal designed and installed by those architects and builders does indeed mirror this perverse inversion in that we are faced with a consciousness which cannot create forms of truth but can only usurp them and then call this travesty ‘truth’, or ‘faithful to the original’.
Lamentably, this has not only been done regarding the knowledge content of the Mother’s original plan. My own work based on that very Knowledge has been similarly disfigured by these very people.
In January 1991, Auroville Today, the official review of the city, published an article by a fledgling architect which was a comparative study between the Matrimandir and the Great Pyramid at Giza, based on material extracted from her thesis. Since I am the only person who has done any solid work on this subject, and in spite of the fact that I had refused permission for this person to use any of my material on this subject two years earlier, she blatantly ‘borrowed’ (read plagiarised) entire diagrams and subject matter from my book, The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 12. Though this had been done without acknowledging the source, it would not have been so bad had the ‘borrowing’ been honest. Contrarily, it was done as an exercise in the same perversion which has become habitual in Matrimandir affairs involving the Mother’s original plan.
In this case, the very portion misused by the author and editor was, significantly, the section dealing with the inaccurately-rendered floor diameter. I presented geometric proof based on Sri Aurobindo’s symbol of this unacceptable inaccuracy which contradicts the Mother’s explicit request that ‘the 24 metres must end at the walls’ (they do not in the architect’s rendering). But instead of conveying this point, the author and editor preferred to make it appear as if my discoveries were applicable to what has been built in Auroville and that the building there conforms to my diagrams – i.e., the correct 24-metre diameter.
The true position however, as established in my original diagrams, is that Sri Aurobindo’s symbol cannot be ‘found’ in what they have built, given the inaccurate floor diameter. But in plagiarising my work in this way, my discoveries appear to CONFIRM their construction as ‘faithful to the original’.
But this blatant plagiarism and misrepresentation did not end there. In the subsequent June 1991 edition of the same paper, ‘Amrit’, the astrologer-in-residence in Auroville, was interviewed. This person was my student in the early 1970s. Again for this piece, one of my diagrams has been ‘borrowed’ without acknowledgement. Once more, this would not be so objectionable except for the fact that this ‘Amrit’ plagiarised my work called ‘the geography of the Gnostic Circle’ from The New Way, Vol.2, Chapter 9. He presents my discoveries as his. He also refers to 1926 as the beginning of the Aquarian Age, which is a date held only by me as such, and when the interviewer asks him why he had selected this date which was the year of Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi, he replies. ‘It just happened that way! I have been experimenting with this date for some 17 years now and it has consistently worked…’. The interview continues in this vein.
Again what is demonstrated is a pick-and-choose attempt to utilise elements of my work which can boost their claim to a meaningful experiment in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work, with some foundation in Knowledge, and in the process pervert that Knowledge. The result is nothing but a travesty of the Truth, a disfiguring, by which the public may be duped. It is exactly what has been done with the Matrimandir: to adopt, to distort, and then call the result ‘faithful to the original’. At least regarding the pseudo-temple the Mother’s inspiration was acknowledged – as a part of the ruse, of course. Regarding my work, even this amount of honesty was withheld. It is simply theft and misrepresentation of that stolen material to use it as a support for that falsehood. Lamentably, these are the ‘official’ spokespeople for the Mother’s work.
We have brought this situation to the attention of the Government of India which now ‘owns’ Auroville. A committee of prominent members of the academic and bureaucratic world has been constituted to oversee Auroville affairs. But ambition would appear to rule the day. For Auroville has, under the new dispensation, become an important international platform, the Avatar’s sanction in the bargain! India as a nation has been brought into that Cauldron and the effects are far-reaching, as I have been illustrating from time to time in these pages. It is indicative of the decline under discussion that the Government of India, through this involvement, has become a tool of the Lord of Nations and not an instrument for the establishment of the Vedic Truth. But the day of reckoning is close at hand.
‘States upon states are born, the coverer of the coverer awakens to the knowledge: in the lap of the mother he wholly sees. They have called to him, getting a wide knowledge, they guard sleeplessly the strength, they have entered into the strong city. The peoples born on earth increase the luminous (force) of the son of the White Mother; he has gold on his neck, he is large of speech, he is as if by (the power of) this honey wine a seeker of plenty. He is like pleasant and desirable milk, he is a thing uncompanioned and is with the two who are companions and is as a heat that is in the belly of plenty and is invincible and an overcomer of many.
‘It is for man to know her meaning, no longer misunderstanding, vilifying or misusing the universal Mother, and to aspire always by her mightiest means to her highest ideal.’
‘Life, not a remote silent or high-uplifted ecstatic Beyond – Life alone, is the field of our Yoga.’
Sri Aurobindo
The Synthesis of Yoga
Cosmic Harmonies in Hindu Civilisation and Society
A few words must be said about a certain characteristic of planets in orbit of the Sun on the foundational plane of the ecliptic. They too bear axes similar to the Sun. But they are not central. They develop their axes and shapes, including their rotation on these axes and then around the sun, from their position on the ecliptic. That is, each planet’s distinctive nature evolves on the basis of its relationship to the luminary it orbits, given the location of that orbit on the ecliptic or foundational plane.
In the context of the Vedic foundation – which is the ecliptic extending from the Sun of gnosis, or Veda – the planets are akin to the numerous paths of Yoga or the philosophies which came to inhabit the vedic cosmos over the millennia. Each can boast indeed of its own ‘axis’, but it accepts its location on the Vedic base and realises that it owes its very existence to that base and can never deny the inherent oneness of their relationship. Moreover it knows that its own individualised existence ENHANCES the glory of the Sun by this process of multiplication but entirely individualistically. No two planets are the same, yet the essential laws of their being are the same. In other words, they vibrate to the same central Pulse.
A distinguishing feature of these civilisational ‘planets’ is an axis which implies a centre. That is, the planet itself expresses the fundamental Vedic principle of a central FULLNESS, or a compact inner ‘seed’ by virtue of which the process of growth is evolutionary and organic. It is that innermost core which determines the contours, never the reverse. Thus, native to this civilisational expression is always a core of fulness. All aspects of Vedic culture display this basic law.
On the other hand, other cultures have moved into this cosmos and their principal characteristic is the absence of the innermost core or that principle of Fulness. They are founded on another principle, the ‘void’. This is the most marked difference or the clearest proof that the invading culture was indeed an EXTERNAL imposition, bringing into the Vedic cosmos a creation that did not draw from the foundational base for its evolution.
The Taj Mahal is an example. It is indubitably one of the world’s most renowned architectural creations and certainly one of the finest products of Islamic culture. Thus this adds substance to my premise that the special nature of the Vedic ecliptical foundation will compel anything that enters into its midst to produce the best of itself at some point in its development or its interchange with and in the base.
If the Taj Mahal were not a tomb and housed a core of Fulness rather than the void of death, we would be encouraged to believe that it had drawn into itself some of the ‘stuff of the Sun’ as it were. Since this is not the case, the Taj is a shell, an exquisite encasement around an inner void. For this is another feature of a creation which establishes its position within the whole in the act of defining leading to integration: its ‘purpose’ is enhanced and revealed. The extreme beauty and magic of the shell pins one to that exquisite surface. It does not draw within because there is no magnetic core of fulness to create this inward-bound attraction.
What then is the Taj expressing in terms of ‘purpose’, of principle? Its inspiration was, history records, a human love. In the echelon of existence human love is an experience of the heart centre or chamber. Deeper within, in the soul, there is a spark of what no human love can equal: Divine Love. In that innermost chamber, deeper within than the heart, the individual encounters a ‘spaceless’ point. That is, in that centremost inward ‘space’ there is no room for a dual expression of the Pulse of creation. There is only THAT, and it is the solitary experience of the seeker possessed of the Divine, in a perfect union of identity – a fusion similar to the operations in the core of the Sun.
As explained in the VISHAAL solstice Special Issue (included in TVN 6/5, December 1991), Sri Ram drew before the evolution of the species this acute problem or choice: the human or the Divine. India, as a civilisation, chose the divine. Because of that ‘choice’, made thousands of years ago, we can continue proclaiming that India is the ‘cradle of spirituality’, that spirituality, or even religion, is what makes the nation tick.
Indeed this is so, the proof is that the very next Evolutionary Avatar to appear after Lord Ram was Sri Krishna who mercilessly drove the race inward, ever deeper into the temple of Yoga until it could only dissolve its individualised being in the arms of the Divine Lover. As a race, a nation, a people, this was Bharat’s choice. The consequences of such a phenomenal civilisational concord are in evidence everywhere in modern India, in the accumulated expressions across the ages of that choice in the cultural body of the nation.
Distinguishing Features of the Hindu Temple
Every element of the Hindu temple is designed to draw the seeker into that sacred innermost precinct. We may compare this creation to the Taj Mahal in that regard and we realise that the massive profusion in the temple’s exterior has the paradoxical effect of driving us inward and away from the profusion in search of and compelled to seek that spaceless Point where there is nothing but the Divine in that ‘hidden chamber closed and mute’. The shell of the Taj never forces this penetration. Indeed, its irresistible magic lies in the singular fact that its beauty acts as an hypnotic potion which rivets one to that external sphere. It can only do so by not housing an inner core.
It may be argued that the Taj does not pretend to be a religious or spiritual expression and that it is simply a mausoleum and a memorial. This is only partially relevant because we are selecting items which reflect a cultural content. In India’s case, all art is religious, – or better, sacred. Music, dance, sculpture, architecture, painting, and so forth. What can be held as true expressions of the indigenous culture all have this ‘purpose’. And they all reveal a central Fulness – as well as an obsession with axes.
If we turn to the immediately religious symbols we may study the nature of the mosque in this light. The mosque appears essentially to be a prayer hall. That is, its central portions are filled not by any deity – indeed, Islam is vehemently opposed to idol worship of any sort. Rather, it is the congregation that provides an inner fullness. And then there is the question of alignment or direction which we must discuss. In the Christian church, to my knowledge alignment of the edifice does not follow a fixed prescription. Similar to the mosque, the church is the refuge of the faithful, the congregation. But there is a further revealing element in the Christian church which adds another dimension to the symbolism. It is the position of the raised altar, separate and apart; and the fact that there can be no service, no worship without the commanding presence of the priest.
In the Hindu temple the emphasis is entirely on the centremost idol because that alone must be the focus. The devotee or worshipper is not encouraged in any way to rely upon or to accept that the priest has any legitimate commanding place in the experience of the seeker. The murti or idol as the innermost Divine requires no mediators. Indeed, this is born out by Hindu culture in that no priest has any final authority over the devotee and he can be eliminated entirely when the devotee performs his own ritual or puja, as it is called, without the need of the priest at all. Even women are free to serve in this capacity. Nor is there any pulpit or any other symbol of an ecclesiastical or kingly power above the Divine. The Hindu is constantly thrown back upon the only true source of ‘authority’: his or her direct experience of the Godhead in whatever form this may take consonant with the temperament of the devotee.
In this too we see the third power of the individual Divine reflected, India’s inner ‘pulse’ of destiny. The inner Divine may be any one of the thousands of Hindu deities, for indeed there are thousands upon thousands of individual worshippers. The precise form it takes is not the issue. The real issue is described in the overall form or design of the Hindu temple. In other words, the temple is the Hindu’s Book of Knowledge. By ‘opening’ this special book in stone – which implies the practice of a yoga or discipline which opens centres normally closed and which then permits the seeker to ‘read’ this book – he or she can understand the single most important truth of Hinduism and compare this with all other cultural expressions: Fullness versus Void. The design or concept of the temple forces the devotee to live the Vedic experience each time he or she enters the temple. One is compelled to plunge deep inside to the core and into the precinct of the innermost Divine regardless of the particular form. This is expressly manifest in the preliminary circumambulation of the edifice, and then within the building around the sanctum sanctorum, and so on, ever moving INWARD, ever converging upon that central Point, that inner Divine. Thus again we observe that the Third Power or the Individual Divine is the foundation of even the a Hindu Temple. The form is manifold. The Vedic experience is one. And it is lived in the intimacy of the soul’s inner chamber, concentrated abode of the Third Power.
The very name given to the Hindu temple’s sanctum sanctorum reveals that it is the abode of the Third: garbhagriha or womb-house. This further emphasises the essential message of Hinduism – the triumph of fulness over the Void, or the birth (from that womb) that fills the void.
Let me quote from Prof. S. K. Ramachandra Rao’s book, The Indian Temple: Its Meaning, IBH Prakashana publishers, for a concise description of the significance of the garbhagriha, albeit a rather exoteric one:
‘The sanctum is technically known as the ‘garbhgrha’ (‘the womb-house’)… It is insisted that this part of the temple must be constructed first, and before the construction a significant ceremony known an ‘impregnating’ (garbhadhana or garbha-nyasa) should be performed. This ritual involves letting into the earth a ceremonial copper pot, containing nine precious stones, several metals and minerals, herbs and soils, symbolising creation and prosperity. The building which contains this ‘womb’ is said to prosper, and not the one which lacks it… After the completion of this ritual, a stone slab (adhara-sila) is placed over the spot where the copper pot has been buried. This stone slab will be the foundation for the installation of the icon. The copper-pot symbolises the womb, and the icon the soul. The sanctum that is built round is the body. This is the significance of the sanctum being called ‘the womb-house’. Texts like Silpa-ratna, Tantra-samuccaya and Isana-siva-gurupaddhati give an elaborate account of this ritual.’ (pages 55-6)
To express this concept, which has become ritualised in the construction of the Hindu temple, in more esoteric language but far closer to the highest Vedic truth, the ‘fecundation’ of the Womb is equivalent to the VERTICAL direction described by the new cosmology. This is the penetrating shaft from the ‘other dimension’ whereby the Point comes into being, which is the ‘seed’, the sperm, if you will. In the above ritual the same process is conveyed using precious stones and metals and soils and herbs, – clearly all symbols of elements most material, most ‘earthly’. Revealed in this is the explicit Earth-orientation of the Vedic quest. Once that Womb is in place and its fecundation assured, the edifice develops from that central Fulness, never the reverse.
To render our study less abstract, I would like to relate this process and concept to two contemporary episodes revolving around temples. One is the Matrimandir in Auroville, and the other is the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.
Regarding the construction of the former, it is to be noted that rather than follow the prescriptions of the Vedic culture, the Matrimandir construction observed the reverse: the architects started from the exterior, the four supporting pillars, and set in place a central Void. This was not even a camouflaged or esoteric symbolism. It was a hole measuring three metres in diameter. In addition, the inclusion of this centremost hole or void, which, it must be noted, did not exist in the Mother’s original plan, increased the cost of the construction enormously. It was set in place a few years after the Mother inaugurated the construction in 1971. From that time onward the history of Auroville and the Matrimandir has been anything but ‘auspicious and prosperous’. There were even accidents and one instance where a young woman, it appears, fell through that very hole and was paralysed completely. (She later suicided.) Auroville was finally taken over by the Government of India when internal disputes could not be solved otherwise. It would appear from this that regardless what those in charge of the construction put out, or how much of a stiff upper lip the residents of Auroville put to the Government take-over, these facts indicate that perhaps the ancient Vedic prescriptions were most profoundly wise. The construction of the Matrimandir has been entirely un-Vedic, and I shall deal with this in the next part of this essay. It may be argued that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo did not intend their work to follow the old patterns and that therefore the Matrimandir construction, even if it can be proven that it did not follow those ancient precepts, has every right to deviate from the norm. Further on in this series I will provide evidence to show that it was precisely through the plan the Mother gave for that temple that the Dharma was to be ‘reestablished’. I shall also discuss what exactly is implied in such an undertaking.
The other contemporary example of the ‘fecundated Womb’ vis-à-vis a temple refers to Ayodhya. The fear exists in certain quarters that soon construction will begin of the temple to Ram which is meant to replace the Babri Mosque. It is sustained by Hindus that the site of the mosque was formerly a temple which had been demolished in order for the Emperor Babar to build this mosque. Furthermore, it is held that the site is especially sacred insofar as tradition considers it to be the actual birthplace of Sri Ram.
I have dwelt on this to a certain extent in the Solstice Special Issue (included in TVN 6/5, December 1991). At this point I would simply like to refer to this question of Fullness versus Void and the hallowed formula for the proper construction of any Hindu temple which is that first the Womb (fecundated) must be installed and then all the rest arises out of that. In Ayodhya, if prevalent fears are to be played out, it would appear that the reverse has been the case: Hindus are preparing to start construction, it is believed, encircling the existent mosque and moving inward, pressing the mosque out perhaps. If such were the case, it could be held by the purists that the Vedic formulas are not being respected and misfortune will result. However, this state of affairs adds a deeper dimension to the surreptitious epiphany of the Ramlal idol in the mosque at the December solstice of 1949. The ‘void’ was then filled. The rest is academic.
It may also be pointed out that according to the true and profound Vedic tradition, the icon would not have ‘appeared’ where it did had there not been the prior womb-fecundation ritual in some form, as Prof. Ramachandra Rao describes, somewhere along the line. In my view this is the firmest proof that the site did indeed once hold a Hindu temple to that very God, or that the precise location was ‘fecundated’ by Ram’s very birth, corroborated now by the appearance of the icon. Given the nature of what we are treating, it is understandable that such matters are difficult to adjudicate in courts of law.
In addition to the above, there is then the question of measurements, proportions, and so forth, which conspire mathematically, geometrically, to create an atmosphere conducive to the lived Vedic experience. Foremost is the question of alignment. Every Hindu temple must respect a certain alignment. This is marked by the stumbha (skambha) or cosmic pillar positioned carefully before the garbhagriha. I do not intend to discuss this element in any great detail, though I would like to refer again to Prof. Ramachandra Rao’s text to illustrate that this Cosmic Pillar is perhaps the least understood of the adornments of the Hindu temple. He makes this clear when he writes… ‘The symbolism of the flag-staff is not clear in the textual accounts, probably because it was a late innovation and not a necessary involvement of the shrine’… He goes on to state that the staff was perhaps an addition brought in by the royal families or patrons of the temple. But further on he writes… ‘The flag-post is also magical in its significance. The texts assign Siva to the bottom of the post, Brahma to the middle portion and Vishnu to the top.’ (Ibid, pages 106-109.) My position on this is that this ‘skambha’ is indeed the least understood of the temple’s symbols because it holds the key to the Rigvedic yoga of alignment – a knowledge long lost.
A hint is given in the text, it would appear, to a far deeper significance of the stumbha when Prof. Rao mentions its connection with the Hindu Trimurti or trinity. Let me add to this that these directions and alignments are COSMICALLY oriented, and that is the point I wish to make here. The entire science of temple building is cosmic or drawn from the cosmic harmony. Thus in this, above all else, is demonstrated the entirely universal character of the Vedic Dharma. The devotee is thrust into a cosmic alignment and harmony when he or she enters the temple. This is no earth-bound direction such as Mecca, one of the most important features of the Islamic mosque. The mosque must be positioned in such a way as to permit the worshipper to turn toward Mecca during his prayers; and even when he is not praying in the mosque, he is obliged to respect this direction. Thus, a worshipper west of Mecca would face eastward, while a worshipper east of Mecca, say India, would face westward. Only Mecca is important as a direction, and it has no cosmic connection. If we add to this the importance of the brotherhood, which the mosque concept emphasises, we observe that two features of Islam separate it from Hinduism. This is the prominence of the brotherhood, and the orientation toward Mecca whenever and wherever it meets for prayer – that is, a point on Earth. In this light it is quite simple to deduce that the goal would be a brotherhood across the globe directed to this hallowed location, in contrast to the Hindu temple which focuses not at all on the congregation or the clergy and any earthly direction, sacred though it may be, but solely on the inner Divine, centre of the cosmos from any point in the universe where the individual stands who houses in his or her body a soul, a ‘garbhgriha’.
Thus we may very confidently state that the Vedic Dharma has spawned a galaxy of ‘exalted individuals’. Each such being is sacred. Each is holder of an inner ‘spark’ or Godhead, as the temple holds in its garbhgriha the divine Murti. On this basis alone it should be obvious that the Vedic Dharma is truly and compellingly universal by virtue of being so utterly riveted on the individual and the human soul. Similarly, to exclude a member of a caste or non-caste or foreigner or whosoever from entering such temples presents something of an incongruity. But even for the native of Bharat to fight for such a right is equally incongruous for the very reasons I have given above: in the Vedic Dharma ultimately there is nothing higher than the individual soul as the encasement of the Supreme. The Hindu temple simply reproduces this fact of existence. In one’s secret chamber, anywhere, any time, the Lover is one with the Beloved.
This is not to say that temples should be obliged to open their doors to everyone, that distinctions should be dissolved. The point is only that the right of distinction, while being a prerogative of the Third Principle, should not be exercised on the basis of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’, ‘best’ or ‘worst’. They are simply manifestations catering to the great galaxy spawned by the Dharma. And finally, nothing is ‘higher’ on the horizontal circular plane of the Dharma’s ecliptic. Everything, in a perfect equality, converges on the Centre and owes its being to the single central Sun or ‘point’.
That Mysterious One, or the Axis Mundi
In all artistic expressions of India’s culture we observe the prominence of what I have called an ‘axial obsession’. This is to be noted in dance very clearly, in particular India’s purest expression, one of the most ancient forms of temple sacred dance still preserved on the subcontinent. This is Bharatnatyam, the ‘Dance of India’, native to Tamil Nadu where the dharma is ‘preserved’.
This special art form is obviously an enactment of certain specific alignments which are cosmos-inspired. That is, the human figure is used to express a certain relationship between the Earth and the heavens. But we cannot separate Bharatnatyam from sculpture in our analysis insofar as the human figure in dance takes the poses which we find to be the cosmic foundation of sculpture and adds to it movement. The two forms together offer a sort of complementation between rest and motion, essential components of the Truth-Consciousness whereby these opposites are harmonised in creation.
An interesting debate surfaces now and again in contemporary Indian society. It centres on what came first, dance or sculpture? That is, was it dance and movement that inspired the numerous sculptures we see gracing Hindu temples which are so obviously linked to dance, or vice-versa.
To illustrate, an article appeared in the Sunday Review of the Times of India, dated 5 January 1992, by Arahiya Sethi, entitled ‘Movement in Monument’. Reference is made by the author to an exhibition organised by a sculptor-dancer, Ramabali Kant. The issue the exhibition brought up was the above question. To prove that it was probably dance that inspired the sculptured sacred forms, the author refers to the Vishnu Dharmottara Purana in which Rishi Markandeya advises King Vajra ‘to learn first the laws of dancing before attempting sculpture, for only when the technique of movement in the living form is mastered can it be arrested in the plastic media.’ Sethi goes on to note that…
‘The sculptural quality of Indian dance is a reflection of the dancer’s aim of achieving the perfect balance as the climax to a series of movements. On the other hand, the profusion of dancing figures in Indian sculpture testifies to the sculptor’s fascination for the kinetics of Indian dance. In fact, one could go as far as to say that a relationship also exists between dance movements and poses, on the one hand, and architectural forms on the other. This view regards architecture as an extended form of sculpture. Hence while circular kinetics of Mohini Attam are mirrored in the rounded and squat temples of Kerala, the majesty of the gopurams of the temples in the south, is captured in the linear expression of Bharat Natyam. This brings up the question of inspiration – was it sculpture that inspired dance, or dance sculpture?’
I would like to state that the answer is not one or the other. Rather, we must inquire what spiritual realisation served to inspire not only dance and sculpture and architecture, but possibly every other facet of Indian culture and civilisation. This realisation, or yogic process to be more exact, is carefully noted down in the Veda; for example, in the hymns to Skambha, the cosmic pillar or axis mundi which I have quoted earlier from the Atharvaveda. But what is the reason for this ‘obsession with axes’? It is simply that axial alignment is the obsession of the Creator – or, as Hindu lore would have it, of Vishwakarma, the Divine Architect. We may be so bold as to state that being fashioned in His/Her image, it is only natural that a civilisation which has made the choice to live for that Principle and that alone, would seek to display this essential aspect of the Divine in all facets of its collective and individual existence. We note here a direct parallel with the philosophies of pre-Christian Europe and the Mediterranean area, for example Plato’s exclamation that ‘God always geometrises’ or that all is simply Number. Basing our analysis on the cultural works of the Vedic civilisation, the same conclusion must be reached.
To carry the analysis into wider vistas, we find that axial alignment, or indeed the coming into being of an axis in the first place, is the principal feature of the cosmic manifestation. This is to be verified in smaller cosmic bodies such as the planets, and in larger, i.e., the Sun. It is also the distinguishing feature of the very centre of our galaxy and indeed the supreme centre of all galaxies, in fact, wherever we find bodies in orbit of a central mass. This is simply because Skambha, that One, is the great secret of creation, the centremost principle of all that exists. It is, in fact, because of that centre, that Point, that any alignment came into being at all. Material creation begins with the Point which in turn is simply a crossing of cosmic directions. More specifically, it is the intersection of the vertical and horizontal dimensions. This means that it is the centre of the compressed 9/6/3 which forms the vertical direction and emerges in the material universe as the One from where that compressed essence extends, evolves, expresses itself in the material plane through time and space. More importantly, and this is the profound Secret of Secrets, or what in the Gita is called the ‘Secret Science’, the convergence and then the emergence of a centre indicates that a connection is made between this plane and ‘the other’, the Transcendent. The Point is thus the Immanent Transcendent, the Vast compressed to a point, a ‘seed’. The whole of material creation is then the organic evolution of That, of the triadic essence which is the basis of all material creation.
I shall quote some verses from the hymns to Skambha of the Atharvaveda to demonstrate the exactitude of the ‘science’ in those ancient times. The translation is Raimundo Panikkar’s and not having the original Sanskrit I must rely on his work. He has used the word ‘Support’ whenever ‘Skambha’ appears in the text:
‘…Toward whom does the rising Flame aspire?
Toward whom does the Wind eagerly blow?
On whom do all the compass points converge?
Tell me of that Support [Skambha] – who may he be?
‘Where do the half months and months together
proceed in consultation with the year?
Where do the seasons go, in group or singly?
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘Toward whom run the sisters, day and night,
who look so different yet one summons answer?
Toward whom do the waters with longing flow?
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘The one on whom the Lord of Life [Prajapati]
leant for support when he propped up the world –
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘That which of all forms the Lord of Life
created – above, below, and in between –
with how much of himself penetrated the Support?
How long was the portion that did not enter?
‘With how much of himself penetrated the Support
into the past? With how much into the future?
In that single limb whose thousand parts he fashioned
with how much of himself did he enter, that Support?
‘Through whom men know the worlds and what enwraps them,
the waters and Holy Word [Brahman], the all-powerful
in whom are found both Being and Nonbeing –
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘By whom Creative Fervor [tapas] waxing powerful
upholds the highest Vow, in whom unite
Cosmic Order [ritam] and Faith, the waters and the Word ‘’
Tell me of that Support – and who may he be?
‘On whom is firmly founded earth and sky
and the air in between; so too the fire,
moon, sun, and wind, each knowing his own place –
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘In whose one limb all the Gods,
thirty and three in number, are affixed –
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘In whom are set firm the firstborn Seers,
the hymns, the songs, and the sacrificial formulas,
in whom is established the Single Seer [the mystical sun] –
Tell me of that Support, who may he be?
‘In whom, as Man, deathlessness and death
combine, to whom belong the surging ocean
and all the arteries that course within him;
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘Of whom the four cardinal directions
comprise the veins, visibly swollen,
in whom the sacrifice has advanced victorious –
Tell me of that Support – who may he be?
‘Those who know the divine in Man
know the highest Lord; who knows the highest Lord
or the Lord of Life knows the supreme Brahman.
They therefore know the Support also.
………………………….
‘The branch of Nonbeing which is far-extending
men take to be the highest one of all.
They reckon as inferior those who worship
your other branch, the branch of Being.
………………………….
‘Great are the Gods who were born from Nonbeing,
yet men aver this Nonbeing to be
the single limb of the Support, the great Beyond.
‘The limb in which the Support, when generating,
evolved the Ancient One – who knows this limb
knows too by that same knowledge the Ancient One [original Principle]
‘It was from this limb that the thirty-three Gods
distributed portions among themselves.
Thus in truth only knowers of Brahman
are also knowers of the thirty-three Gods.
‘Men recognise the Golden Embryo [Hiranyagarbha]
as the unutterable, the Supreme.
Yet it was the Support who in the beginning
poured forth upon the world that stream of gold…’
(Athar.X,7)
Vedic civilisation is the only one in the world, from ancient times into the present, which has been audacious enough to strive to establish an entire society of this profound basis, this ‘support’, this Skambha. Panikkar’s translation of these splendid hymns lacks the insights the direct yogic experience gives which would permit a far more precise translation. Nonetheless, even a simple, literal version such as the above, suffices to help us in making the connections between the India of today and the ancient world as recorded in the Veda. As I am demonstrating, every aspect of India’s culture was a conscious, knowledgeable (and successful) attempt to reproduce, to recapture this axial fact of our existence in the numerous facets of collective and individual living. Everything else we know in the world is a lesser attempt, never having reached the purity of the Vedic inspiration. But preceding the actual visual, audial and plastic arts, there stands that supreme yogic achievement of Skambha and Agni, the axis mundi. This is the yoga detailed in the Rigveda. It is a knowledge long lost and which has resurfaced in this century with the appearance of the 9th Evolutionary Avatar, Sri Aurobindo, who was to initiate with his birth the reestablishment of the Vedic Dharma – that is, the restructuring of Indian society on those eternal and indestructible foundations. For this the Avatar, as Sri Ram and Sri Krishna before him had done, had to LIVE THE YOGA. In other words, to imprint this eternal truth on the evolutionary matrix of this 9th Manifestation. Sri Aurobindo had to rediscover that Vedic Yoga. His appearance as the 9 in the Solar Line was in the form of the Transcendent. His ‘sleep’ and awakening as the One is in the form of the Immanent Transcendent, or the Point, the One, the Centre, Agni. To render the realisation possible and complete, the powers of 6 and 3 were conjoined to the 9. And out of that Third the One was born.
This is the most profound mystery of creation. I have written earlier that it constituted the quest of the Alchemists of the West. This is clearly evidenced in the following Hermetic formula, taken from the dialogues between Maria Prophetessa and Aros (Isis and Horus?): ‘One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the One as the fourth.’ Translated into the formula of the new cosmology, this is the 9, 6, 3, and out of the 3 comes the l, who is the fourth in the Line.
The question therefore – What came first, dance or sculpture? – is meaningless. It is that yogic process of alignment and creation of a centre that is the seed-realisation and inspiration of everything we know in the Vedic universe. Similarly, when measures are lost and knowledge is obscured, it has to be the same Vedic process re-lived within the circumscribing conditions of this 9th Manifestation which is to form the basis for any correction or renewal of the things distorted or lost over the ages in between this 9th and the last, the 8th Manifestation of Sri Krishna, when he graced this planet in order to carry out a similar process. When there is talk of renewal in music or any of the other art forms in India, it must be understood that if we are to undertake a renewal, respecting the cosmic structure and processes of old which were the foundations of the things desired to be remade, then we can only do so by first living the Yoga of the Veda. We cannot expect to ‘put the cart before the horse’.
And inasmuch as alignment and centre arise from the fulness of that compressed Seed, again I must repeat, Indian civilisation, founded on the Veda, must struggle to fill the void ever and always. It means that in order to be in a position to function as a true civilisation held together by that mysterious and elusive Point (as ever it had been until the onset of this 9th Manifestation), it must accept that the Yoga of the 9, and 6, and 3, leading to the birth of the One who ‘fills the void’, is the essential ingredient for that to come about.
It is in this light that we are obliged to assess the condition of contemporary Indian society and the realistic possibility of ‘holding together’ when we are faced with a series of expressions on the subcontinent which cannot, by the rightful law of their being, find any point of convergence in the stream of the Vedic foundational plane. The question is then, Do we abandon that plane in view of the fact that there exists this apparently unreconcilable situation as a product of history which cannot be erased? Or do we proceed a step further and ‘put each thing in its place’?
To do this effectively we must recognise what is truly indigenous and what has come ‘from outside’ in, for example, some of the more popular expressions of dance and other forms of art. Kathak, for instance, is remarkably reflective of certain aspects of Spanish Flamenco Dance. Spain, as we know, was greatly influenced by Arabic/Islamic culture, Flamenco being perhaps one such product. It is not surprising therefore that, to a careful observer, Kathak of northern India, also influenced by Islamic culture, should bear some profound resemblance to Flamenco, both have been exposed to the same stream of inspiration. Or else we may take Hindi, officially adopted at the time of Independence as India’s national language. I have always felt that Hindi is to the subcontinent what Spanish is to Europe. They both give evidence of a certain virility and vital quality which distinguishes them from the other languages of their respective areas. The aspirated ‘j’ (jota) of Spanish recalls certain sounds of Arabic, for instance. We find similar sounds in Hindi which sets it apart from the languages indigenous to the subcontinent such as Tamil and Sanskrit.
But what exactly is the distinguishing feature of these particular modifications and influences, brought about by an Islamic wave which moved into the two countries at about the same period? It is that the expression is centred in the vital being (collective or individual, in the yogic sense) rather than the mental or even the physical. This indeed is the quality of Islam, and it can be traced to the Old Testament and the story of Abel and Cain, or the mental and vital principles and their eternal struggle for supremacy. Sri Aurobindo has expressed something of this order in his Thoughts and Aphorisms…
‘Christ came into the world to purify, not to fulfil. He himself foreknew the failure of his mission and the necessity of his return with the sword of God into a world that had rejected him.
‘Mahammad’s mission was necessary, else we might have ended by thinking, in the exaggeration of our efforts at self-purification, that earth was meant only for the monk and the city created as a vestibule for the desert.
‘When all is said, Love and Force together can save the world eventually, but not Love only or Force only. Therefore Christ had to look forward to a second advent and Mahammad’s religion, where it is not stagnant, looks forward through the Imams to a Mehdi.’
But we need not hark back to remote history or legend or scripture to assess the prominence of the vital centre in Arabic/Islamic culture. The contemporary scene is perhaps a better verification. For there is the question of energy, for example, the prime ‘purpose’ of the vital centre in the being of civilisation or in the individual constitution. This is clearly borne out by contemporary Arabia’s contribution to the world economy, its abundance of oil and the role this creates for it in international affairs. But for this commodity, Islamic civilisation would have been forced to play a far less significant role in this 20th Century. Thus, oil (energy) is vital to its international persona.
But there is another example of the vital-oriented structure of the civilisation, far purer and closer to the realm of the symbolic and the ‘symbol being the thing symbolised’. I refer to the Horse which is the animal symbol in almost all occult and esoteric traditions most expressive of the qualities the vital contributes to creation. The Veda makes this symbolism abundantly clear. Indeed, in ancient times the Horse was as sacred as the Cow, since together they represent the basic pillars of creation: Consciousness(Cow)-Force(Horse).
For the horse to fulfil its symbol role it must express its essential nature or its true dharma. This is speed, movement. In the cosmic harmony it is that formidable motion of all creation, because of which forms emerge and are held together. Thus speed is its attribute. There is no finer example of that quality than the English Thoroughbred, for centuries the only horse used for high-quality racing, – the ‘sport of kings’. But it must be noted that the foundation stock of the thoroughbred was entirely Arabian. The horse we know by that name today can be traced to a breeding experiment involving three of the finest Arabian horses in the second half of the 18th Century. It is also worth noting that this inter-civilisational mix which went into the production of this superb animal and highest expression of the Horse Dharma, was the same combination that entered the Vedic plane, Arabic and English. I may add by way of a clue to the future denouement, the Horse symbol and the vital centre hold the key to the resolution of the conundrum India faces in seeking to integrate these strands from beyond her borders.
Defining Hinduism, an exercise long overdue
Scholars and theologians have great difficulty in describing or defining Hinduism. We are all agreed that it does not follow the patterns all other religions follow, hence the difficulty in even labelling it a religion. But we persist in doing so simply because there is no other term or bracket in which to fit this unique manifestation of the human spirit. Most authorities on the subject offer banal definitions, in the West emphasising the Hindu belief in reincarnation as being one of the chief feature of the religion. This is entirely misleading but it is understandable since the yardstick for the assessment is always the known and well-structured Middle-Eastern religions, Judeo-Christianity and Islam, with which Hinduism has little in common and none of which believe in reincarnation. Hinduism is thus measured on that limited yardstick. In the process nothing of its true character is known. This is not only a problem in the West. In India itself one has difficulty in locating a real authority on the matter, for the reasons which I have been describing in this series: the principal features of the Vedic Dharma have become quite obscured over the centuries.
Sri Aurobindo stands perhaps alone in this century in giving a nearly perfect description of Hinduism, but not many have appreciated his work in this area or its import for the reestablishment of the Vedic Dharma. This may be due to the fact that his revelations reach back to the true Vedic foundation which is now to be rediscovered before anything of his writings can be properly comprehended. I shall quote portions from his Foundations of Indian Culture, Part III, Chapter l, where he defines Hinduism. It will then be more than evident that his definition follows meticulously the basic formula of the new cosmology, 9-6-3-0/1, which in turn is the formula revealing the birth-pattern of the Solar Line of which he is the initiator.
His definition begins with the overall unifying Principle, the Transcendent, which in this cosmology is the 9; from there he passes on to the Cosmic Divine, the number 6 in the cosmological formula, and then finally all converges on the Individual Divine, the 3. For Sri Aurobindo the core of Hinduism consists of this ‘formula’ and constitutes what he describes as a… ‘synthetic character and embracing unity’ which, if it is not grasped impedes us from understanding… ‘the whole meaning of Indian life and the whole sense of Indian culture’:
‘…And if we are asked, “But after all what is Hinduism, what does it teach, what does it practise, what are its common factors,” we can answer that Indian religion is founded upon three basic ideas or rather three fundamentals of a highest and widest spiritual experience. First comes the idea of the One Existence of the Veda to whom sages give different names, the One without a second of the Upanishads who is All that is, and beyond all that is, the Permanent of the Buddhists, the Absolute of the Illusionists, the supreme God or Purush of the Theists who holds in his power the soul and Nature, – in a word the Eternal, the Infinite. This is the first common foundation; but it can be an endless variety of formulas by the human intelligence. To discover and closely approach and enter into whatever kind of degree of unity with this Permanent, this Infinite, this Eternal, is the highest height and last effort of its spiritual experience. That is the first universal credo of the religious mind of India. ‘Admit in whatever formula this foundation, follow this great spiritual aim by one of the thousand paths recognised in India or even any new path which branches off from them and you are at the core of the religion. For its second basic idea is the manifold way of man’s approach to the Eternal and Infinite. The Infinite is full of many infinities and each of these infinities is itself the very Eternal. And here in the limitations of the cosmos God manifests himself and fulfils himself in the world in many ways, but each is the way of the Eternal. For in each infinite we can discover and through all things as his forms and symbols we can approach the Infinite; all cosmic powers are manifestations, all forces are forces of the One. The gods behind the workings of Nature are to be seen and adored as powers, names and personalities of the one Godhead… One may approach the Supreme through any of these names and forms with knowledge or in ignorance; for through them and beyond them we can proceed at last to the supreme existence.
‘One thing however has to be noted that while many modernised Indian religionists tend, by way of an intellectual compromise with modern materialistic rationalism, to explain away these things as symbols, the ancient Indian religious mentality saw them not only as symbols but as world-realities, – even if to the Illusionist realities only of the world of Maya. For between the highest unimaginable Existence and our material way of being the spiritual and psychic knowledge of India did not fix a gulf as between two unrelated opposites. It was aware of other psychological planes of consciousness and experience and the truths of these supraphysical planes were no less real to it than the outward truths of the material universe. Man approaches God at first according to his psychological nature and his capacity for deeper experience… The level of Truth, the plane of consciousness he can reach is determined by the inner evolutionary stage. Thence comes the variety of religious cult, but its data are not imaginary structures, inventions of priests or poets, but truths of a supraphysical existence intermediate between the consciousness of the physical world and the ineffable superconscience of the Absolute.
‘The idea of strongest consequence at the base of Indian religion is the most dynamic for the inner spiritual life. It is that while the supreme or the divine can be approached through a universal consciousness and by piercing through all inner and outer Nature, That or He can be met by each individual soul in itself, in its own spiritual part, because there is something in it that is intimately one or at least intimately related with the one divine Existence. The essence of Indian religion is to aim at so growing and so living that we can grow out of the Ignorance which veils this self-knowledge from our mind and life and become aware of the Divine within us. These three things put together are the whole of Hindu religion, its essential sense and, if any credo is needed, its credo.’
Reestablishment of the Dharma
Similar to the difficulty in defining Hinduism, we encounter a similar problem when assessing the true nature of what is known as a reestablishment of the Dharma, considered by Hindu tradition to be the work of the Ten Avatars. After this review of the foundational base of the Veda, it becomes easier to understand this most important feature of the tradition. Most assess the issue in moralistic or religious terms, according to the standards set by the structured religions of the world – a better human being and a better society, law-abiding, dutiful, responsible, caring, compassionate, and all the rest. But these qualities are not the issue at all when the time comes for this very special ‘reestablishment’. Indeed, the moralistic assessment is the way Mohandas Gandhi came to look upon the ‘Ramrajya’ (‘rule or reign of Sri Ram’) which he aspired to establish in India. Or else the present political and cultural organisations which have also adopted the Ramrajya slogan as their platform. But none of this is pertinent to the reestablishment of the Vedic Dharma; and, to be more precise, there can never be an establishment of the reign of Sri Ram since his period was the 7th Manifestation of 10,000 years ago. Time does indeed move on. The reestablishment must take place in the soil of the contemporary India we know and in consideration of the accumulated experience of the civilisation over the past 2,000 years.
Neither Ram nor Krishna had to face the question of Fullness versus Void. In their respective Manifestations, this was not the central issue. After the rise and supremacy of Buddhist and Mayavadist philosophies and spiritual realisations, this acute problem lies at the root of the reestablishment simply because these avenues of experience have struck a blow at the very heart of the Veda itself, – that Core of Fullness upon which the entire edifice of the civilisation was built.
Whenever we encounter a target or goal that is ‘otherworldly’, then we know the void is its sustenance and it is an expression un-Vedic in essence. Every religion in existence today houses this Void by the mere fact that the goal is a heaven ‘above’, or ‘beyond’, and that life on this planet is but a passage through the fire, as it were, in order to reach that supreme Heaven. The position is one of a denial of the Earth herself, contingent upon which is a denial of the Goddess. Thus the movement is not inward, converging on the Core of fullness or garbhagriha. It is outward, dissolving in the Beyond. Hence we say that all these religious and spiritual postulations and realisations harbour the Void. And there is only one which does not. It is the Vedic Dharma.
For India, when the time of the appearance of the 9th (and 10th) Evolutionary Avatar arrives, it is the signal that the civilisation has reached a momentous crossroads and that the work to be done will not resemble that of the former Evolutionary Avatars but will conform to the demands of the Time-Spirit and the circumscribing conditions of this 9th Manifestation. Furthermore, and this is the most important point, we have reached the end of the Line. We are at the 9th and 10th stages of the Puranic Line of Ten. We understand by this that the Dharma has come full circle. All that has intervened from the time the first OM was chanted until today has resulted in a joining of the Serpent’s head and tail. That is, the reestablishment now, unlike in Ram and Krishna’s time, involves the very heart and soul of the Dharma. It lives on if the reestablishment is done and the real Satyayuga or Age of Truth (not Ramrajya) begins for the civilisation, or it perishes. There are only these two ‘possibilities’.
It must further be stated that a work of this order is carefully arranged. Nothing is left to chance. All is controlled, planned, foreseen. Let us then explore the avenues which have been given to the civilisation and its wisemen and women in order to secure the Victory. In so doing we must bear in mind that this closing of the circle implies that the reestablishment hinges in part on the resurrection of the Yoga detailed in the earliest Veda, and that without the successful accomplishment of that process there can be no question of any reestablishment. For India’s destiny is spiritually oriented, which means that it is on the basis of these yogic achievements first and foremost that anything beyond that can begin to express itself in the civilisation and society. I have demonstrated this regarding the arts and the necessity of a basic yogic realisation if any form of renewal is to come about in the ‘limbs’ of the yogic civilisational Body. The same may be said of any aspect of contemporary Indian life. And if a crossroads has been reached and we stand amidst tumbling ruins of all that appeared to be the ‘solid’ edifice of the new India, we must accept that what is collapsing is not founded on that original and indestructible Base. Therefore, we must make contact with That and allow it to reveal the contours of the true new India.
I propose in the next part of this series to dwell exclusively on the strategy and mechanism arranged for India in this 9th Manifestation to ‘reestablish the Dharma’. In the process we will explore more thoroughly the question of Alignment and Measure, by virtue of which ‘all things are made new’, to use the Biblical phrase.
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